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D  I  S  C  0  U  11  S  E 


MATTERS   TERTAmiNG  TO  RELIGION. 


THEODORE    PARKER 


MINISTER   OF   THE    SECOND    CHURCH    IN    ROXBURY,    MASS. 


"  If  an  offence  come  out  of  the  Triitli,  better  is  it  that  the  offence  Cfmie,  than  tlie 
Truth  be  concealed."  —  Jerome. 


BOSTON: 

CHARLES  C.  LITTLE  AND  JAMES  BROWlf. 


MDCCCXLII. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1842,  by 

Theodore  Parker, 

in  tlie  Clerk's  Office  of  tlie  District  Court  of  tlie  District  of  Massacliusetts. 


B  O  S  '1'  O  ^  : 

PKINTED    BV    FREEMAN    AND    BOLLES, 

WASHINGTON    STREET. 


THE    rr^EFACE. 


The  following  pages  contain  the  substance  of  a 
series  of  five  lectures  delivered  in  Boston,  during 
the  last  autumn,  at  the  request  of  several  gentle- 
men. In  preparing  the  work  for  the  press  I  have 
enlarged  on  many  subjects,  which  could  be  but 
slightly  touched  in  a  brief  lecture.  It  was  with 
much  diffidence  that  I  then  gave  my  opinions  to 
the  public  in  that  form;  but  considering  the  state  of 
theological  learning  amongst  us,  and  the  frequent 
abuse  of  the  name  of  Religion,  I  can  no  longer 
vvithold  my  humble  mite. 

It  is  the  design  of  this  work  to  recall  men  from 
the  transient  shows  of  time  to  the  permanent  sub- 
stance of  Religion ;  from  a  worship  of  Creeds  and 
empty  Belief,  to  a  worship  in  Spirit  and  in  Life. 
If  it  satisfy  the  doubting  soul,  and  help  the  serious 
inquirer  to  true  views  of  God,  man,  the  relation 
between  them,  and  the  duties  which  come  of  that 
relation  ;  if  it  makes  Rehgion  appear  more  conge- 
nial and  attractive,  and  a  divine  life  more  beautiful 
and  sweet  than  heretofore  —  my  end  is  answered. 
I  have  not  sought  to  pull  down,  but  to  build  up  ; 


IV  PREFACE. 

to  remove  the  rubbish  of  human  inventions  from 
the  fair  temple  of  divine  truth,  that  men  may  enter 
its  shining  gates  and  be  blessed  now  and  forever. 

I  have  found  it  necessary  —  though  painful  —  to 
speak  of  many  popular  delusions,  and  expose  their 
fallacy  and  dangerous  character,  but  have  not,  I 
trust,  been  blind  to  "  the  soul  of  goodness  in  things 
evil,"  though  I  have  taken  no  great  pains  to  speak 
smooth  things,  or  say  Peace,  peace,  when  there 
was  NO  peace.  The  subject  of  Book  IV.  might 
seem  to  require  a  greater  space  than  I  have  allowed 
it,  but  a  cursory  examination  of  many  points  there 
hinted  at,  would  require  a  volume,  and  I  did  not 
wish  to  repeat  what  is  said  elsewhere,  and  therefore 
have  referred  to  an  "  Introduction  to  the  Old  Tes- 
tament on  the  basis  of  De  Wette,"  which  is  now  in 
the  press,  and  will  probably  come  before  the  public 
in  a  few  months.  Some  of  the  thoughts  here  set 
forth  have  also  appeared  in  the  Dial  for  1840-42. 
I  can  only  wish  that  the  errors  of  this  book  may 
find  no  favor,  but  perish  speedily,  and  that  the 
truths  it  humbly  aims  to  set  forth,  may  do  their 
good  and  beautiful  work. 

West  Roxeury,  Mass. 
7th  May,  1842. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

The  Introduction      .......         3 

BOOK  I. 

OF  RELIGION  IN  GENERAL  ;      OR  A  DISCOURSE    OF    THE   RELIGIOUS 
SENTIMENT    AND    ITS    MANIFESTATIONS. 

Chap.  I.    An  Examination  of  the  Religious  Elements  in 

Man,  and  the  Existence  of  its  object  .  H 

Chap.  II.  Of  the  Sentiment,  Idea  and  Conception  of  God  20 
Chap.  III.  Extent  and  Power  of  the  Religious  Sentiment  29 
Chap.  IV.     The  Idea  of  Religion  connected  with  Science 

and  Life 44 

Chap.  V.     The  three  great  Historical  Forms  of  Religion     51 
Chap.  VI.   Of  certain  Doctrines  connected  with  Religion. 
I.  Of  the  Primitive  State  of  Mankind,     ii.  Of 
the  Immortality  of  the  Soul        .         .         •  112 

Chap.  VII.     The  Influence  of  the  Religious  Sentiment 

on  Life    ....•••         132 

BOOK  II. 

THE    RELATION     OF     THE     RELIGIOUS    SENTIBIENT    TO    GOD,    OR    A 
DISCOURSE    OF    INSPIRATION. 

Chap.  I.  The  Idea  and  Conception  of  God  .  .  159 
Chap.  II.     The  Relation  of  Nature  to  God         .         .         170 


VI  CONTENTS. 


Page 


Chap.  III.    Statement  of  the  Analogy  drawn  from  God's 

Relation  to  Nature 181 

Chap.  IV.     The  General  Relation  of  Supply  to  Want  183 

Chap.  V.     Statement  of  the  Analogy  from  this  Relation  190 

Chap.  VI.     The  Rationalistic  View,  or  Naturalism     .  197 
Chap.  VII.     The  Anti-rationalistic  View,  or  Supernatur- 

alism 207 

Chap.  VIII.  The  Natural-Religious  View,  or  Spiritu- 
alism       .......  215 

BOOK   III. 

THE    RELATION  OF  THE    KELIGIOUS    SENTIMENT  TO    JESUS  OF  NAZ- 
ARETH,  OR  A  DISCOURSE  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Chap.  I.     Statement  of  the  Question  and  the  Method  of 

Inquiry 237 

Chap.  II.     Removal  of  some  Difficulties.     Character  of 

the  Christian  Records         ....         246 

Chap.  III.     The  Main  Features  of  Christianity  .         253 

Chap.  IV.  The  Authority  of  Jesus,  its  Real  and  Pre- 
tended Source  .....         262 

Chap.  V.     The  Essential  Peculiarity    of  the   Christian 

Religion 281 

Chap.  VI.     The  Moral  and  Religious  Character  of  Jesus 

of  Nazareth 289 

Chap.  VII.     Mistakes  about  Jesus  —  his  Reception  and 

Influence 299 

BOOK  IV. 

THE  RELATION  OF  THE    RELIGIOUS    SENTIMENT  TO  THE  GREATEST 
OF  BOOKS,  OR  A  DISCOURSE  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

Chap.  I.     Position  of  the  Bible  —  Claims  made  for  it  — 

Statement  of  the  Question         .  .  .         317 

Chap.  II.  An  Examination  of  the  Claims  of  the  Old 
Testament  to  be  a  Divine,  Miraculous,  or  In- 
fallible Composition  ....         327 


CONTENTS.  VU 

Page 

Chap.  III.  An  Examination  of  tlie  Claims  of  the  New 
Testament  to  be  a  Divine,  Miraculous,  or  In- 
fallible Composition  ....         351 

Chap.  IV.  The  Absolute  Religion  Independent  of  His- 
torical Documents  —  the  Bible  as  it  is  .         364 

Chap.  V.     Cause  of  the  False  and  the  Real  V^eneration 

for  the  Bible  369 

BOOK  V. 

THE  RELATION  OF  THE    RELIGIOUS    SENTIMENT  TO  THE  GREATEST 
OF  HUMAN  INSTITUTIONS,  OR  A  DISCOURSE    OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Chap.  I.     Claims  of  the  Christian  Church  .         .         381 

Chap.  II.      The    Gradual    Formation   of  the   Christian 

Church 388 

Chap.  III.    The  Fundamental  and  Distinctive  Idea  of  the 

Christian  Church  —  Division  of  the  Christian 

Sects 405 

Chap.  IV.  The  Catholic  Party  ....  408 
Chap.  V.  The  Protestant  Party  ....  436 
Chap.  VI,     Of  the  Party  that  are  neither  Catholics  nor 

Protestants        ......         477 

Chap.  VII.     The  Final  Answer  to  the  Question          .         482 

The  Conclusion 489 


THE    INTRODUCTION. 


# 


"  To  false  Religion,  we  are  indebted  for  persecutors,  zealots  and  bigots ; 
and  perhaps  human  depravity  has  assumed  no  forms,  at  once  more  odious 
and  despicable,  than  those  in  which  it  has  appeared  in  such  men.  I  will 
say  nothing  of  persecution ;  it  has  passed  away,  I  trust  forever ;  and 
torture  will  no  more  be  inflicted,  and  murder  no  more  committed,  under 
pretence  of  extending  the  spirit  and  influence  of  Christianity.  But  the 
temper  which  produced  it  still  remains ;  its  parent  bigotry  is  ^till  in  exist- 
ence ;  and  what  is  there  more  adapted  to  excite  thorough  disgust,  than 
the  disposition,  the  feelings,  the  motives,  the  kind  of  intellect  and  degree 
of  knowledge,  discovered  by  some  of  those,  who  are  pretending  to  be  the 
sole  defenders  and  patrons  of  religious  truth  in  this  unhappy  world,  and 
the  true  and  exclusive  heirs  of  all  the  mercy  of  God.''  It  is  a  particular 
misfortune,  that  when  gross  errors  in  religion  prevail,  the  vices  of  which 
I  speak,  shew  themselves  especially  in  the  clergy  ;  and  that  we  find  them 
ignorant,  narrow-minded,  presumptuous,  and  as  far  as  they  have  it  in 
their  power,  oppressive  and  imperious.  The  disgust  which  this  charac- 
ter in  those  who  appear  as  ministers  of  religion,  naturally  produces,  is 
often  transferred  to  Christianity  itself.  It  ought  to  be  associated  only  with 
that  form  of  religion  by  which  those  vices  are  occasioned." — Andrews 
Norton,  Thoughts  on  true  and  false  Religion,  second  edition,  pp.  15,  16. 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


The  history  of  tlie  world  shows  clearly  that  Re- 
liction is  the  highest  of  all  human  concerns.     Yet 
the   greatest  good  is  often   subject  to   the   worst 
abuse.     The  doctrines  and  ceremonies  that  repre- 
sent the  popular  religion  at  this  time,  offer  a  strange 
mingling  of  truth  and  error.     Theology  is  often  con- 
founded with  religion ;  men  exhaust  their  strength  in 
believing,  and  have  little  Reason  to  inquire  with, 
or  solid  Piety  to  live  by.     It  requires  no  prophet  to 
see  that  what  is  popularly  taught  and  accepted  as 
religion  is  no  very  divine  thing ;  not  fitted  to  make 
the  world  purer  and  man  more  w^orthy  to  live  in  it. 
In  the  popular  theology  of  the  present,  as  of  all 
time,   there    is    something    mutable    and  fleeting; 
something  also  which  is  eternally  the  same.     The 
former  lies  on  the  surface,  and  all  can  see  it ;  the 
latter  lies  deep  and  often  escapes  observation.   Our 
theology  is  mainly   based   on   the   superficial   and 
transient  element.     It  stands  by  the  forbearance  of 
the  skeptic.     They  who  rely  on  it,  are  always  in 
dan^jer  and  always  in   dread.     A   doubt  strongly 
put,  shakes  the  pulpits  of  New  England,  and  wakens 
the  thunder  of  the  church.     Do  men  fear  lest  the 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


mountains  fall  ?  Tradition  is  always  uncertain. 
"Perhaps  yes,  perhaps  no,"  is  all  we  can  say  of  it. 
Yet  is  it  made  the  basis  of  religion.  Authority 
is  taken  for  Truth,  and  not  Truth  for  Authority. 
Belief  is  made  the  Substance  of  Religion,  as  Author- 
ity its  Sanction  and  Tradition  its  Ground.  The 
name  of  Infidel  is  applied  to  the  best  of  men,  the 
wisest,  the  most  spiritual  and  heavenly  of  our 
brothers.  The  bad  and  the  foolish  naturally  ask.  If 
the  name  be  deserved,  what  is  the  use  of  religion, 
as  good  men  and  wise  men  can  be  good  and  wise, 
heavenly  and  spiritual  without  it  ?  The  answer  is 
plain  —  but  not  to  the  blind. 

Practical  Religion  implies  both  a  Sentiment  and 
a  Life.  We  honor  a  phantom  which  is  neither  life 
nor  sentiment. .  Yes,  we  have  two  Spectres  that 
often  take  the  place  of  Religion  with  us.  The  one 
is  a  Shadow  of  the  sentiment ;  that  is  our  creed, 
belief,  theology,  by  whatever  name  we  call  it. 
The  other  is  the  Ghost  of  Life  ;  this  is  our  ceremo- 
nies, forms,  devout  practices.  The  two  Spectres  by 
turns  act  the  part  of  Religion,  and  we  are  called^ 
Christians  because  we  assist  at  the  show.  Real 
piety  is  expected  of  but  few.  He  is  the  Christian 
that  bows  to  the  Idol  of  his  Tribe,  and  sets  up  also 
a  lesser,  but  orthodox  idol  in  his  own  den.  One 
word  of  the  Prophet  is  true  of  our  religion  —  Its 
voice  is  not  he  rd  in  the  streets.  Our  Theology  is 
full  of  confusion.  They  who  admit  Reason  to  look 
upon  it  confound  the  matter  still  more,  for  a  great 
revolution  of  thought  alone  can  set  matters  right. 


THE  IiNTRODUCTION. 


Religion  is  separated  from  Life,  divorced  from  bed 
and  board.  Wc  think  to  be  religious  without  love 
for  man,  and  pious  with  none  for  God ;  or,  which 
is  the  same  thing,  that  we  can  love  our  neighbor 
without  helping  him,  and  God  without  having  an 
idea  of  him.  The  prevailing  theology  represents 
God  as  a  being  whom  a  good  man  must  hate ; 
Religion  as  something  alien  to  our  nature,  which  can 
only  rise  as  Reason  falls.  A  despair  of  man  per- 
vades our  theology.  Pious  men  mourn  at  the  fam- 
ine in  our  churches ;  we  do  not  believe  in  the  inspi- 
ration of  goodness  now ;  only  in  the  tradition,  of 
goodness  long  ago.  For  all  theological  purposes, 
God  might  have  been  buried  after  the  ascension  of 
Jesus.  We  dare  not  approach  the  Infinite  One 
face  to  face  ;  we  whine  and  whimper  in  our  brother's 
name,  as  if  we  could  only  appear  before  the  Omni- 
present by  Attorney. 

Our  reverence  for  the  Past,  is  just  in  proportion 
to  our  ignorance  of  it.  We  think  God  was  once 
everywhere  in  the  world ;  in  the  Soul ;  but  has 
now  crept  into  a  corner  as  good  as  dead ;  that 
the  Bible  was  his  last  word.  Instead  of  the 
Father  of  All  for  our  God,  we  have  two  Idols,  the 
Bible,  a  record  of  men's  words  and  works ;  and 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man  who  lived  divinely  some 
centuries  ago.  These  are  the  idols  of  the  reli- 
gious ;  our  standard  of  truth;  the  gods  in  whom  we 
trust.  Mammon,  the  great  Idol  of  men  not  religious 
—  who  overtops  them  both,  and  has  the  truest 
worshipers  —  need  not  now  be  named.    His  votaries 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


knoio  they  are  idolaters ;  the  others  worship  in  ig- 
norance, their  faith  fixed  mainly  on  transient  things. 
I  know  there  are  exceptions  to  this  rule.  Saints 
never  fail  from  the  earth.  Reason  will  claim  some 
deserted  niche  in  every  church.  But  wise  men  grieve 
over  our  notions  of  religion  ;  so  poor,  so  alien  to 
Reason.  Pious  men  weep  over  our  practice  of  reli- 
gion ;  so  far  from  Christianity.  What  passes  for 
Christianity  in  our  times  is  not  reasonable ;  no  man 
pretends  it.  It  can  only  be  defended  by  forbidding 
a  reasonable  man  to  open  his  mouth.  We  go  from 
the  street  to  the  church.  What  a  change  !  Reason 
and  good  sense  and  manly  energy,  which  do 
their  work  in  the  world,  have  here  little  to  do  ; 
their  voice  is  not  heard.  The  morality,  however, 
is  the  same  in  both  places ;  it  has  only  laid  off  its 
working  dress,  smoothed  its  face,  put  on  its  Sunday- 
clothes.  The  popular  Religion  is  hostile  to  man ; 
tells  us  he  is  an  outcast ;  not  a  child  of  God,  but  a 
spurious  issue  of  the  devil.  He  must  not  even  pray 
in  his  own  name.  His  duty  is  an  impossible  thing. 
No  man  can  do  it.  He  deserves  nothing  but  dam-, 
nation.  Theology  tells  him  that  is  all  he  is  sure  of. 
It  teaches  the  doctrine  of  immortality ;  but  in  such 
guise,  that,  if  true,  it  is  a  misfortune  to  mankind. 
Its  heaven  is  a  place  no  man  has  a  right  to.  Would 
a  good  man  willingly  accept  what  is  not  his  ?  Pray 
for  it  ?  This  theology  rests  on  a  lie.  Men  have 
made  it  out  of  assumptions.  The  conclusions  came 
from  the  premises  ;  but  the  premises  were  made  for 
the  sake  of  the  conclusions.     Each  vouches  for  the 


.* 


THE    INTRODUCTIOX.  / 

Other's  triitli.  But  what  else  will  vouch  for  either? 
The  historical  basis  of  popular  doctrines,  such  as 
Depravity,  Redemption,  Resurrection,  the  Incarna- 
tion ;  is  it  formed  of  Facts  or  of  No-Facts  ?  Who 
shall  tell  us  ?  Do  not  the  wise  men  look  after 
these  things  ?  One  must  needs  blush  for  the  pa- 
tience of  mankind. 

But  has  Religion  only  the  bubble  of  Tradition  to 
rest  on  ;  no  other  sanction  than  Authority  ;  no  sub- 
stance but  Belief?  They  know  little  of  the  matter 
who  say  it.  Did  religion  begin  with  what  we  call 
Christianity  ?  Were  there  no  Saints  before  Peter  ? 
Religion  is  the  first  thing  man  learned  ;  the  last 
thing  he  will  abandon.  There  is  but  one  Religion, 
as  one  Ocean  ;  though  we  call  it  Faith  in  our 
church,  and  Infidelity  out  of  our  church. 

It  is  my  design  in  these  pages  to  recall  men  from 
the  transient  Form  to  the  eternal  Substance  ;  from 
outward  and  false  Belief  to  real  and  inw^ard  Life  ; 
from  this  partial  Theology  and  its  Idols  of  human 
device,  to  that  universal  Religion  and  its  ever  living 
God  ;  from  the  temples  of  human  Folly  and  Sin, 
which  every  day  crumble  and  fall,  to  the  inner  sanc- 
tuary of  the  Heart  where  the  still  small  voice  will 
never  cease  to  speak.  I  would  show  men  Religion 
as  she  is — most  fair  of  all  God's  fairest  children. 
If  I  fail  in  this,  it  is  the  head  that  is  weak,  not  the 
heart  that  is  wantinjr. 


BOOK    I 


"  Who  is  there  almost  that  has  not  opinions  planted  in  him  by  educa- 
tion time  out  of  mind;  which  by  that  means  came  to  be  as  the  municipal 
laws  of  the  country,  which  must  not  be  questioned,  but  are  then  looked 
on  with  reverence,  as  the  standard  of  right  and  wrong,  truth  and  false- 
hood, when  perhaps  these  so  sacred  opinions  are  but  the  oracles  of  the 
nursery,  or  the  traditional  grave  talk  of  those  who  pretend  to  inform  our 
childhood  ;  who  receive  them  from  hand  to  hand  without  ever  examining 
them?  ....  These  ancient  preoccupations  of  our  minds,  these 
several  and  almost  sacred  opinions,  are  to  be  e.xamined  if  we  will  make 
way  for  truth,  and  put  our  minds  in  that  freedom  which  belongs  and  is 
necessary  to  them.  A  mistake  is  not  the  less  so,  and  will  never  grow 
into  a  truth  because  we  have  believed  it  a  long  time,  though  perhaps  it 
be  the  harder  to  part  with ;  and  an  error  is  not  the  less  dangerous,  nor 
the  less  contrary  to  truth  because  it  is  cried  up  and  had  in  veneration 
by  any  party." — Locke,  in  King's  Life  of  him,  second  edition;  Vol. 
I.  pp.  188,  192. 


BOOK  I. 

OF  RELIGION  IN  GENERAL  ;    OR  A  DISCOURSE  OF  THE  RELI- 
GIOUS SENTIMENT  AND  ITS  MANIFESTATIONS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

AN    EXAMINATION    OF    THE    RELIGIOUS    ELEMENT    IN    MAN,    AND 
THE   EXISTENCE    OF    ITS    OBJECT. 

As  we  look  on  the  world  which  man  has  added 
to  that  which  came  from  the  hand  of  its  Maker,  we 
are  struck  with  the  variety  of  its  objects,  and  the 
contradiction  between  them.  There  are  institutions 
to  prevent  crime  ;  institutions  that  of  necessity  per- 
petuate crime.  This  is  built  on  selfishness  ;  would 
stand  by  the  downfall  of  Justice  and  Truth.  Side 
by  side  therewith  is  another,  whose  broad  foun- 
dation is  universal  love,  —  love  for  all  that  are  of 
woman  born.  Thus  we  see  palaces  and  hovels  ; 
jails  and  asylums  for  the  weak,  arsenals  and 
churches,  huddled  together  in  the  strangest  and 
most  intricate  confusion.  How  shall  we  bring 
order  out  of  this  chaos  ;  account  for  the  existence 
of  these   contradictions?     It    is    serious    work   to 


12  THE  RELIGIOUS   SENTIMENT. 

decompose  these  phenomena,  so  various  and  con- 
flicting ;  to  detect  the  one  cause  in  the  many  results. 
But  in  doing  this,  we  find  the  root  of  all  in  man  him- 
self. In  him  is  the  same  perplexing  antithesis  which 
we  meet  in  all  his  works.  These  conflicting  things 
existed  as  ideas  in  him  before  they  took  their  pre- 
sent and  concrete  shape.  Discordant  causes  have 
produced  effects  not  harmonious.  Out  of  man 
these  institutions  have  grown  ;  out  of  his  passions, 
or  his  judgment ;  his  senses  or  his  soul.  Taken 
together  they  are  the  exponent  which  indicates  the 
character  and  degree  of  development  the  race  has 
now  attained  ;  they  are  both  the  result  of  the  past 
and  the  prophecy  of  the  future. 

From  a  survey  of  society,  and  an  examination  of 
human  nature,  we  come  at  once  to  the  conclusion, 
that  for  every  institution  out  of  man,  except  that  of 
Religion,  there  is  a  cause  within  him,  either  fleet- 
ing or  permanent ;  that  the  natural  wants  of  the 
body,  the  desire  of  food  and  raiment,  comfort  and 
shelter,  have  organized  themselves,  and  instituted 
agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts  ;  that  the  more^ 
delicate  principles  of  our  nature,  love  of  the  Beauti- 
ful, the  True,  the  Good,  have  their  organization 
also ;  that  the  passions  have  their  artillery,  and 
each  of  the  gentler  emotions  somewhat  external  to 
represent  themselves,  and  reflect  their  image. 
Thus  the  institution  of  Laws,  with  their  concomi- 
tants, the  Court-house  and  the  Jail,  we  refer  to  the 
moral  sense  of  mankind,  combining  with  the  des- 
potic selfishness  of  the  strong,  whose  might  usurps 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SENTIMENT.  13 

the  place  of  justice.  Factories  and  Commerce, 
Railroads  and  Banks,  Schools  and  Shops,  Armies 
and  Newspapers,  arc  quite  easily  referred  to  some- 
thing analogous  in  the  wants  of  man  ;  to  a  lasting 
principle,  or  a  transient  desire  which  has  projected 
them  out  of  itself.  Thus  we  see  that  these  institu- 
tions out  of  man  are  but  the  exhibitions  of  what  is 
in  him,  and  must  be  referred  either  to  eternal 
principles,  or  momentary  passions.  Society  is  the 
work  of  man.  There  is  nothing  in  society  which 
is  not  also  in  man. 

Now  there  is  one  vast  institution,  which  extends 
more  widely  than  human  statutes ;  claims  the 
larger  place  in  human  affairs  ;  takes  a  deeper  hold 
on  man  than  the  terrible  pomp  of  War,  the  machinery 
of  Science,  the  panoply  of  Comfort.  This  is  the 
institution  of  Religion,  coeval  and  coextensive  with 
the  human  race.  Whence  comes  this  ?  Is  there  an 
eternal  principle  in  man's  nature,  which  legiti- 
mately and  of  necessity  leads  to  this  ;  or  does  it 
come,  like  Piracy,  War,  the  Slave-trade,  and  so 
much  other  business  of  society,  from  the  abuse, 
misdirection  and  disease  of  human  nature  ?  Shall 
we  refer  this  vast  institution  to  a  passing  passion 
which  the  advancing  race  will  outgrow,  or  does  it 
come  from  a  principle  in  us  deep  and  lasting  as  man  ? 

To  this  question,  for  many  ages  two  answers 
have  been  given  —  one  foolish,  and  one  wise.  The 
foolish  answer,  which  may  be  read  in  Lucretius  and 
elsewhere,  is,  that  Religion  is  not  a  necessity  of 
man's  nature,  which  comes  from  the  action  of  eter- 


14  THE  RELIGIOUS  SENTIMENT. 

nal  demands  within  him,  but  is  the  result  of  mental 
disease,  so  to  say ;  the  effect  of  fear,  of  ignorance, 
combining  with  selfishness  ;  that  hypocritical  Priests 
and  knavish  Kings,  practising  on  the  ignorance,  the 
credulity,  the  passions  and  the  fears  of  men,  in- 
vented for  their  own  sake,  and  got  up  a  religion,  in 
which  they  put  no  belief,  and  felt  no  spiritual  con- 
cern. But  judging  from  a  superficial  view,  it  might 
as  well  be  said  that  food  and  comfort  were  not  ne- 
cessities of  man's  nature,  but  only  cunning  devices 
of  butchers,  mechanics  and  artists,  to  gain  wealth 
and  power.  Besides,  it  is  not  given  to  hypocrites 
under  the  mitre,  nor  over  the  throne,  to  lay  hold  on 
the  world  and  move  it.  Honest  conviction  and 
living  faith  are  needed  for  that  work.  To  move  the 
world  of  man  firm  footing  is  needed.  The  hypo- 
crite deceives  few  but  himself,  as  the  attempts  at 
pious  frauds,  in  ancient  and  modern  times,  abun- 
dantly prove. 

The  wise  answer  is,  that  this  institution  of  Reli- 
gion, like  Society,  Friendship,  and  Marriage,  comes 
out  of  a  principle,  deep  and  permanent  in  the  heart  ,* 
that  as  humble,  and  transient,  and  partial  institu- 
tions come  out  of  humble,  transient,  and  partial 
wants,  and  are  to  be  traced  to  the  senses  and  the 
phenomena  of  life  ;  so  this  sublime,  permanent,  and 
universal  institution,  came  out  from  sublime,  per- 
manent, and  universal  wants,  and  must  be  referred 
to  the  soul,  and  the  unchanging  realities  of  life. 
Looking,  even  superficially,  but  with  earnestness, 
upon  human  affairs,  we  are  driven  to  confess,  that 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SENTIMENT.  15 

there  is  in  man  a  spiritual  nature,  which  directly 
and  legitimately  leads  to  Religion  ;  that  as  man's 
body  is  connected  with  the  world  of  Matter ;  rooted 
in  it ;  has  bodily  wants,  bodily  senses  to  minister 
thereto,  and  a  fund  of  external  materials,  wherewith 
to  gratify  these  senses,  and  appease  these  wants  ; 
so  man's  soul  is  connected  with  the  world  of  Spirit ; 
rooted  in  God  ;  has  spiritual  wants,  and  spiritual 
senses,  and  a  fund  of  materials  wherew  ith  to  gratify 
these  spiritual  senses,  and  appease  these  spiritual 
wants.  If  this  be  so,  then  do  not  religious  institutions 
come  equally  from  man  ?  May  it  not  be  that  there  is 
nothing  in  Religion,  more  than  in  Society,  which  is 
not  implied  in  man  ?  Now  the  existence  of  a  reli- 
gious element  in  us,  is  not  a  matter  of  hazardous 
and  random  conjecture,  nor  attested  only  by  a 
superficial  glance  at  the  history  of  man,  but  this 
principle  is  found  out,  and  its  existence  demon- 
strated in  several  legitimate  ways. 

We  see  the  phenomena  of  w^orship  and  reli- 
gious observances ;  of  religious  wants  and  actions 
to  supply  those  wants.  Work  implies  a  hand  that 
did,  and  a  head  that  planned  it.  A  sound  induc- 
tion from  these  facts,  carries  us  back  to  a  relijrious 
principle  in  man,  though  the  induction  does  not 
determine  the  nature  of  this  principle,  except  that 
it  is  the  cause  of  these  phenomena.  This  common 
and  notorious  fact  of  religious  phenomena  being 
found  everywhere,  can  be  explained  only  on  the 
supposition  that  man  is,  by  the  necessity  of  his  na- 
ture, inclined   to  Religion ;  that  worship,   in  some 


16  THE  RELIGIOUS  SENTIMEJNT. 

form,  gross  or  refined,  in  act,  or  word,  or  thought, 
or  life,  is  natural  and  quite  indispensable  to  the 
race.  If  the  opposite  view  be  taken,  that  there  is 
no  rehgious  principle  in  man,  then  there  are  perma- 
nent and  universal  phenomena  without  a  corres- 
ponding cause,  and  the  fact  remains  unexplained 
and  unaccountable. 

Again,  we  feel  conscious  of  this  element  within 
us.  We  are  not  sufficient  for  ourselves ;  not  self- 
originated  ;  not  self-sustained.  A  few  years  ago, 
and  we  were  not;  a  few  years  hence,  and  our 
bodies  shall  not  be.  A  mystery  is  gathered  about 
our  little  life.  We  have  but  small  control  over 
things  around  us ;  are  limited  and  hemmed  in  on 
all  sides.  Our  schemes  fail.  Our  plans  miscarry. 
One  after  another,  our  lights  go  out.  Our  realities 
prove  dreams.  Our  hopes  waste  away.  We  are 
not  where  we  would  be,  nor  what  we  would  be. 
After  much  experience,  men  powerful  as  Napoleon, 
victorious  as  Caesar,  confess,  what  simpler  men 
knew  by  instinct  long  before,  that  it  is  not  in  man 
that  walketh,  to  direct  his  steps.  We  find  our  cir- 
cumference very  near  the  centre,  every  where.  An 
exceedingly  short  radius  measures  all  our  strength. 
We  can  know  little  of  material  things ;  nothing 
but  their  phenomena.  As  the  circle  of  our  know- 
ledge widens  its  ring,  we  feel  our  ignorance  on 
more  numerous  points,  and  the  Unknown  seems 
greater  than  before.  At  the  end  of  a  toilsome  life, 
we  confess,  with  a  great  man  of  modern  times,  that 
we  have  wandered  on  the  shore,  and  gathered  here 


THE  RELIGIOUS   SENTIMENT.  17 

a  bright  pebble,  and  there  a  shining  shell  —  but  the 
ocean  of  Truth,  shoreless  and  unfathomed,  lies  be- 
fore us,  and  all  unknown.  The  wisest  Ancient 
knew  only  this,  that  he  knew  nothing.  We  feel 
an  irresistible  tendency  to  refer  all  outward  things 
and  ourselves  with  them,  to  a  power  beyond  us, 
sublime  and  mysterious,  which  we  cannot  measure, 
nor  even  comprehend.  We  are  filled  with  rever- 
ence at  the  thought  of  this  power.  Outward  mat- 
ters give  us  the  occasion  which  awakens  conscious- 
ness, and  spontaneous  nature  leads  us  to  something 
higher  than  ourselves,  and  greater  than  all  the 
eyes  behold.  We  are  bowed  down  at  the  thought. 
Thus  the  sentiment  of  something  superhuman, 
comes  natural  as  breath.  This  primitive,  spiritual 
sensation  comes  over  the  soul,  when  a  sudden  ca- 
lamity throws  us  from  our  habitual  state  ;  when  joy 
fills  our  cup  to  its  brim,  at  "  a  wedding  or  a  funeral, 
a  mourning  or  a  festival ;"  when  we  stand  beside  a 
great  work  of  nature,  a  mountain,  a  waterfall ; 
when  the  twilight  gloom  of  a  primitive  forest  sends 
awe  into  the  heart ;  when  we  sit  alone  with  our- 
selves, and  turn  in  the  eye,  and  ask.  What  am  I  ? 
Whence  came  I  ?  Whither  shall  I  go  ?  There  is 
no  man  who  has  not  felt  this  sensation,  this  myste- 
rious sentiment  of  something  unbounded. 

Still  farther,  we  arrive  at  the  same  result  from  a 
philosophical  analysis  of  man's  nature.  We  set 
aside  the  Body  with  its  senses  as  the  man's  house, 
having  doors  and  windows ;  we  examine  the  Un- 
derstanding, which  is  his  handmaid  ;    we  separate 


18 


THE  RELIGIOUS   SENTIMENT. 


the  Affections  which  unite  soul  with  soul ;  we  dis- 
cover the  Moral  Sense,  bj  which  the  man  can  dis- 
cern between  right  and  wrong  as  by  the  body's  eye  ; 
between  black  and  white,  or  night  and  day  ;  and 
behind  all  these,  and  deeper  down,  beneath  all  the 
shifting  phenomena  of  life,  we  discover  the  reli- 
gious SENTIMENT  OF  MAN.  Lookiug  carcfully  at 
this  sentiment ;  separating  this  as  a  cause  from  its 
actions,  and  these  from  their  effects  ;  stripping  the 
faculty  of  all  accidental  circumstances  peculiar  to 
the  age,  nation,  sect,  or  individual,  and  pursuing  a 
sharp  and  final  analysis  till  the  subject  and  predi- 
cate can  no  longer  be  separated  ;  we  find  as  the 
ultimate  fact,  that  the  religious  sentiment  is  this : 
A  SENSE  OF  DEPENDENCE.^  This  Sentiment  does  not, 
itself,  disclose  the  character,  and  still  less  the  nature 
and  essence  of  the  object  on  which  it  depends  ; 
no  more  than  the  senses  disclose  the  nature  of  their 
objects  ;  no  more  than  the  eye  or  ear  discovers  the 
essence   of  light   or   sound.     Like   them,    it   acts 


'  The  religious  and  moral  elements  mutually  involve  each  other  in 
practice ;  neither  can  attain  a  perfect  development  without  the  other  ; 
but  they  are  yet  as  distinct  from  one  another  as  the  faculties  of  sight  and 
hearing,  or  memory  and  imagination.  Perhaps  all  wWl  not  agree  with 
that  analysis  which  makes  a  sense  of  dependence  the  ultimate  fact  in  the 
case.  This  is  the  statement  of  Schleiermacher,  not  to  mention  more 
ancient  authorities.  See  his  Christliche  Glaube  nach  der  GrundsJilzen  der 
ev.  Kirche.  B.  I.  §  4,  p.  15,  et  seq.  in  his  Works;  1  Abt.  B.  III.  Berlin, 
1835.  of  course  a  sense  of  infinite  as  well  as  finite  dependence  is  intend- 
ed. Others  may  call  it  a  conscio7isness  of  the  infinite  ;  I  contend  less  for 
the  analysis  than  for  i\\e  fact  of  a  religious  element  in  man.  This  theory 
has  been  assailed  by  several  philosophers,  amongst  others  by  Hegel. 
See  his  Philosophic  der  Religion,  2d  improved  edition, B.  I.  p.  85,  et  seq. 
in  B.  XL  of  his  works,  Berlin,  1840. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SEJNTIMENT. 


19- 


spontaneous  and  unconsciously,  soon  as  the  outward 
occasion  offers,  with  no  effort  of  will,  forethought, 
or  making  up  the  mind. 

Thus,  then,  it  appears  that  induction  from  noto- 
rious fiicts  ;  consciousness  spontaneously  active,  and 
a  philosophical  analysis  of  man's  nature,  all  lead 
equally  to  some  religious  sentiment  or  principle  as 
an  essential  part  of  man's  constitution.  Now  when 
it  is  stated  thus  nakedly  and  abstractly,  that  man 
has  in  his  nature  a  permanent  religious  element,  it 
is  not  easy  to  see  on  what  grounds  this  primary 
quality  can  be  denied  by  any  thinking  man,  who 
will  notice  the  religious  phenomena  in  history, 
trust  his  own  consciousness,  or  examine,  and  ana- 
lyze the  combined  elements  of  his  own  Being.  It 
is  true,  men  do  not  often  say  to  themselves,  "  Go 
to  now.  Lo,  I  have  a  religious  sentiment  in  the 
bottom  of  my  heart."  But  neither  do  they  often 
say,  "  Behold,  I  have  hands  and  feet,  and  am  the 
same  being  that  I  was  last  night  or  forty  years 
ago."  In  a  natural  and  healthy  state  of  mind,  men 
rarely  speak  or  think  of  what  is  felt  unconsciously 
to  be  most  true,  and  the  basis  of  all  spiritual  ac- 
tion. It  is,  indeed,  most  abundantly  established, 
that  there  is  a  religious  element  in  man. 


CHAPTER    II. 


OF    THE    SENTIMENT,    IDEA   AND    CONCEPTION    OF   GOD. 

Now  the  existence  of  this  religious  element  — 
of  this  sense  of  dependence,  this  sentiment  of  some- 
thing without  bounds,  is  itself  a  proof  by  implication 
of  the  existence  of  its  object,  —  something  on  which 
dependence  rests.  A  belief  in  this  relation  between 
the  feeling  in  us  and  its  object  independent  of  us, 
comes  unavoidably  from  the  laws  of  man's  nature. 
There  is  nothing  of  which  we  can  be  more  certain.^ 
A  natural  want  in  man's  constitution  implies  satis- 
faction in  some  quarter,  just  as  the  faculty  of  seeing 
implies  something  to  correspond  to  this  faculty, 
namely,  objects  to  be  seen  and  a  medium  of  light 
to  see  by.     As  the  tendency  to  love  implies  some- 

'  The  truth  of  the  human  faculties  must  be  assumed  in  all  arguments, 
and  if  this  be  admitted  we  have  then  the  same  evidence  for  spiritual  facts 
as  for  the  maxims  or  the  demonstrations  of  Geometry.  On  this  point 
see  some  good  remarks  in  Cudworth's  Intellectual  System,  Andover,  1838, 
2  vols.  8vo.  Vol.  II.  p.  135,  et  seq.  If  any  one  denies  the  trustworthiness 
of  the  human  faculties,  there  can  be  no  argument  with  him  ;  the  axioms 
of  morals  and  of  mathematics  are  alike  nonsense  to  such  a  reasoner. 
Demonstration  presupposes  something  so  certain  it  requires  no  demon- 
strating.    So  Reasoning  presupposes  the  trustworthiness  of  Reason. 


IDKA   OF  GOD  21 

thing  lovely  for  its  object,  so  the  religious  sentiment 
implies  its  object :  if  it  is  regarded  as  a  sense  of  abso- 
lute dependence,  it  implies  the  Absolute  on  which 
this  dependence  rests,  independent  of  ourselves. 

Now  spiritual,  like  bodily  faculties,  act  jointly  and 
not  one  at  a  time,  and  when  the  occasion  is  given 
from  without  us.  Reason,  spontaneously,  independ- 
ent of  our  forethought  and  volition,  acting  by  its 
own  laws,  gives  us,  by  intuition,  an  idea  of  that  on 
which  we  depend.  To  this  Idea  we  give  the  name 
of  God  or  Gods  as  it  is  represented  by  one  or 
several  separate  conceptions.  Thus  the  existence 
of  God  is  implied  by  the  natural  sense  of  depend- 
ence, in  the  religious  sentiment  itself;  it  is  expressed 
by  the  spontaneous  intuition  of  Reason. 

Now  men  come  to  this  Idea  early.  It  is  the 
logical  condition  of  all  other  ideas  ;  without  this  as 
an  element  of  our  consciousness,  or  lying  latent, 
as  it  were,  and  unrecognised  in  us,  we  could  have 
no  ideas  at  all.  The  senses  reveal  to  us  something 
external  to  the  body,  and  independent  thereof,  on 
which  it  depends ;  they  tell  not  what  it  is.  Con- 
sciousness reveals  something  in  like  manner,  not  the 
soul,  but  its  absolute  ground,  on  which  the  soul  de- 
pends. Outward  circumstances  furnish  the  occasion 
by  which  we  approach  and  discover  the  Idea  of  God  ; 
but  they  do  not  furnish  the  Idea  itself.  That  is  a 
fact  given  by  the  nature  of  man.  Hence  some 
philosophers  have  called  it  an  innate  idea  ;  others 
a  reminiscence  of  what  the  soul  knew  in  a  higher 
state  of  life  before  it  took  the  body.    Both  opinions 


22  IDEA   OF   GOD. 

may  be  regarded  as  rhetorical  statements  of  the 
truth  that  the  Idea  of  God  is  a  fact  given  by  man's 
nature,  and  not  an  invention  or  device  of  ours.  The 
belief  in  God's  existence  therefore  is  natural,  not 
against  nature.  It  comes  unavoidably  from  the 
legitimate  action  of  Reason  and  the  religious  senti- 
ment, just  as  the  belief  in  light  comes  from  using 
the  eyes,  and  belief  in  our  existence  from  mere 
existing.  The  knowledge  of  God's  existence,  there- 
fore, may  be  called  an  intuition  of  Reason  in  the 
language  of  Philosophy  ;  or  a  Revelation  from 
God,  in  the  language  of  the  elder  Theology.^ 

If  the  above  statement  be  correct,  then  our  be- 
lief in  God's  existence  does  not  depend  on  the  a 
posteriori  argument,  on  considerations  drawn  from 
the  order,  fitness  and  beauty  discovered  by  obser- 
vations made  in  the  material  world  ;  nor  yet  on  the 
a  priori  argument,  on  considerations  drawn  from 
the  eternal  nature  of  things,  and  observations  made 
in  the  spiritual  world.  It  depends  primarily  on  no 
argument  whatever,  not  on  ixasoning  but  Reason. 
The  fact  is  given  outright,  as  it  were,  and  comes  to 

'  English  writers,  in  general,  have  rarely  attempted  to  account  philo- 
sophically for  the  origin  of  the  Idea  of  God.  They  have  usually  assumed 
this,  and  then  defended  it  by  the  various  arguments.  See  Locke's  Essay 
on  the  Human  Understanding,  Book  I.  eh.  IV. ;  and  Cousin's  Psychology, 
Henry's  translation,  Hartford,  1S34,  p.  46,  et  seq.  and  181,  et  seq.  See 
some  valuable  remarks  in  Cudworth's  Intellectual  System,  &c..  Vol.  II. 
p.  134,  et  seq.  See  the  Christian  Examiner  for  January,  1S40,  p  309,  et 
seq.,  and  the  works  there  cited.  See  also  the  article  of  President  Hop- 
kins in  American  Quarterly  Observer,  No.  II.,  Boston,  1833,  and  Ripley's 
Philosophical  Miscellanies,  Vol.  I  p.  40,  et  seq.  and  203,  et  seq. 


^ 


IDEA  OF  GOD.  23  , 

the  man,  as  soon  and  as  naturally,  as  the  belief  of 
his  own  existence,  and  is  indeed  logically  insepa- 
rable from  it,  for  we  cannot  be  conscious  of  ourselves 
except  as  dependent  beings. 

This  intuitive  perception  of  God  is  afterwards 
fundamentally  and  logically  established  by  the  a 
priori  argument,  and  beautifully  confirmed  by  the  a 
posteriori  argument ;  but  we  are  not  left  without 
the  Idea  of  God  till  we  become  metaphysicians 
and  naturalists  and  so  can  discover  it  by  much  think- 
ing. It  comes  spontaneously,  by  a  law  of  whose 
action  wc  are,  at  first,  not  conscious.  The  belief 
always  precedes  the  proof;  intuition  gives  the  thing 
to  be  reasoned  about.  Unless  this  intuitive  function 
be  performed,  it  is  not  possible  to  attain  a  knowledge 
of  God.  All  arguments  to  that  end  must  be  ad- 
dressed to  a  faculty  which  cannot  originate  the  Idea 
of  God,  but  only  confirm  it  when  given  from  some 
other  quarter.  Any  argument  is  vain  when  the 
logical  condition  of  all  argument  has  not  been  com- 
plied with.^  If  the  reasoner,  as  Dr.  Clarke  has 
done,  presuppose  that  his  opponent  has  "  no  tran- 
scendent idea  of  God,"  all  his  reasoning  could  never 
produce  it,  howsoever  capable  of  confirming  and 
legitimating  that  idea  if  already  existing  in  the 
consciousness.     As  we  may  speak  of  sights  to  the 


'  Kant  has  abundantly  shown  the  insufficiency  of  all  the  philosophical 
arguments  for  the  existence  of  God,  the  physico-theological,  the  cosmo- 
logical  and  the  ontological ;  Kritik  der  reinen  Vernunft,  7th  edition, 
p.444,et  seq.  But  the  fact  of  the  Idea  given  in  man's  nature  cannot 
be  got  rid  of. 


24  IDEA  OF  GOD. 

blind,  and  sounds  to  the  deaf,  and  convince  them 
that  things  called  sights  and  sounds  actually  exist, 
but  can  furnish  no  Idea  of  those  things  when  there 
is  no  corresponding  sensation,  so  we  may  convince 
a  man's  understanding  of  the  soundness  of  our  argu- 
mentation, but  yet  give  him  no  Idea  of  God  unless 
he  have  previously  an  intuitive  sense  thereof.  With- 
out the  intuitive  perception,  the  metaphysical  argu- 
ment gives  us  only  an  idea  of  abstract  Power  and 
Wisdom ;  the  argument  from  design  gives  only  a 
limited  and  imperfect  cause  for  the  limited  and  im- 
perfect effects.  Neither  reveals  to  us  the  Infinite 
God. 

The  Idea  of  God  then  transcends  all  possible  ex- 
ternal experience  and  is  given  by  intuition,  or  reve- 
lation, which  comes  of  the  joint  and  spontaneous 
action  of  Reason  and  the  religious  sentiment.^  Now 
theoretically  this  Idea  involves  no  contradiction  and 
is  perfect :  that  is,  when  the  proper  conditions  are 
complied  with,  and  nothing  disturbs  the  free  action 
of  the  soul,  we  receive  the  Idea  of  a  Being,  infinite 
in  Power,  Wisdom  and  Goodness  ;  ^  that  is  infinite, 
or  perfect,  in  all  possible  relations.  But  practically, 
in  the  majority  of  cases,  these  conditions  are  not 
observed  ;  men  attempt  to  form  a  complex  and  de- 
finite conception  of  God.    The  primitive  Idea,  eter- 


'  The  idea  of  God,  like  that  of  Liberty  and  Immortality,  may  be  called 
a  judgment  a,  priori,  and  from  the  necessity  of  the  case  transcends  all  ob- 
jective experience,  as  it  is  logically  anterior  to  it. 

*  See  Ciidworth's  Intellectual  System,  Chap.  IV.  §  8—10,  Vol.  I. 
p.  213,  et  seq. 


CONCEPTION  OF  GOD.  25 

nal  in  man,  is  lost  sight  of.  The  conception  of 
God,  as  men  express  it  in  their  language,  is  imper- 
fect, sclf-contradictorj  and  impossible.  Human 
actions,  human  thoughts,  human  feelings,  yes  human 
passions  and  all  the  limitations  of  mortal  man,  are 
collected  about  the  Idea  of  God.  Its  primitive 
simplicity  and  beauty  are  lost.  It  becomes  self- 
destructive  and  the  conception  of  God,  as  many 
minds  set  it  forth,  like  that  of  a  Griffin,  or  Centaur, 
or  "  men  whose  heads  do  grow  beneath  their  shoul- 
ders," is  self-contradictory ;  the  notion  of  a  being 
who,  from  the  very  nature  of  things,  could  not  exist. 
They  for  the  most  part  have  been  called  Atheists 
who  denied  the  popular  idea  of  God,  showed  its 
inconsistency,  and  proved  that  such  a  being  could 
not  be.^    The  early  Christians  and  all  the  most  dis- 


'  The  best  men  have  often  been  branded  as  Atheists.  The  following 
benefactors  of  the  world  have  borne  that  stigma  :  Thales,  Anaxagoras, 
Pythagoras,  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Xenophanes,  and  both  the  Zenos; 
Cicero,  Seneca,  Abelard,  Gallileo,  Kepler,  Des  Cartes,  Leibnitz,  Wolf, 
Locke,  Cudworth,  Samuel  Clarke,  Jacob  Bohme  ;  Kant,  and  Fichte,  and 
Schelling,  and  Hegel  are  still  under  the  ban.  See  some  curious  details 
of  this  subject  in  Keimmann's  Historia  Atheismi,  &c.,  1725,  a  dull  book 
but  profitable.  Sec  also  "  Jlistorical  Sketch  of  Atheism/'  by  Dr.  Pond, 
in  American  Piiblical  Repository,  for  Oct.  ]839,  p.  320,  et  seq. 

Possevin,  in  his  Bibliotheca,  puts  Luther  and  RIelancthon  among  the 
Atheists.  Mersenne,  in  his  Comment,  in  Geneseos,  says,  that  in  1G22, 
there  were  50,000  Atheists  in  Paris  alone,  often  a  dozen  in  a  single  house. 
See  some  curious  details  respecting  the  literary  treatment  of  the  subject 
in  J.  G.  Walch's  Philosophisches  Lexicon,  2d  ed.  Leip.  1733,  pp.  134-146. 
Dr.  Woods,  in  his  translation  of  Knapp's  Theology,  New  York,  1831,  2 
vols.  8vo,  in  a  note  borrowed  from  Halm's  Lehrbuch  der  Christ.  Glaubens, 
p.  175,  et  seq.  places  Dr.  Priestley  among  the  modern  Atheists,  where 
also  he  puts  De  La  Mettrie,  Von  Holbach,  (or  La-Grange),  Helvetius, 
Diderot  and  d'Alembert.  Such  catalogues  are  instructive.  But  see 
4 


26  CONCEPTION   OF   GOD. 

tinguished  and  religious  philosophers  have  borne 
that  name,  simply  because  they  were  too  far  before 
men  for  tlieir  sympathy,  too  far  above  them  for  their 
comprehension,  and  because,  therefore,  their  Idea 
of  God  was  sublimer  and  nearer  the  truth  than  that 
held  by  their  opponents. 

Now  the  conception  we  form  of  God,  under  the 
most  perfect  circumstances,  must,  from  the  nature 
of  things,  fall  short  of  the  reality.  The  finite  can 
form  no  adequate  conception  or  imagination  of  the 
Infinite.  All  the  conceptions  of  the  human  mind 
are  conceived  under  the  limitation  of  Time  and 
Space  ;  of  dependence  on  a  cause  exterior  to  itself; 
while  the  Infinite  is  necessarily  free  of  these  limita- 


Clarke's  Classification  of  Atheists  at  the  beginning  of  his  discourse,  above 
quoted,  in  his  Works,  Vol.  II.  p.  521,  et  seq. 

The  charge  of  impiety  is  always  brought  against  such  as  differ  from 
the  public  faith,  especially  if  they  rise  above  it.  A  curious  old  writer 
says,  "  among  the  Grecians  of  old,  those  Secretaries  of  Nature,  which 
first  made  a  tender  of  the  natural  causes  of  lightnings  and  tempests  to 
the  rude  ears  of  men,  were  blasted  with  the  reproach  of  Atheists  and  fell 
under  the  hatred  of  the  untutored  rabble,  because  they  did  not,  like  them, 
receive  every  extraordinary  in  nature  as  an  immediate  expression  of  the 
power  and  displeasure  of  the  Deity."  Spencer,  Preface  to  his  Discourse 
concerning  Prodigies,  London,  1665.  Diodorus  Siculus,  Lib.  I.  p.  75, 
(ed.  Rhodoman),  relates  an  instructive  case.  A  Roman  soldier,  in  Egypt 
accidentally  killed  a  cat;  killed  a  God,  for  the  cat  was  a  popular  object  of 
worship.  The  people  rose  upon  him,  and  nothing  could  save  him  from  a 
violent  death  at  the  hands  of  the  mob.  All  religious  persecutions,  if  it 
be  allowed  to  compare  the  little  with  the  great,  may  be  reduced  to  this 
one  denomination.  The  heretic,  actually  or  by  implication,  killed  a  conse- 
crated cat,  and  the  orthodox  would  kill  him.  But  as  the  same  thing  is  not 
sacred  in  all  countries,  (for  even  asses  have  their  worshipers),  the  cat- 
killer,  though  an  abomination  in  Egypt,  would  be  a  great  saint  in  some 
country  where  dogs^  are  worshiped. 


CONCEPTION  OF  CiOD.  27 

tions.  Man  can  comprehend  no  form  of  being  but 
his  own  finite  form,  which  answers  to  the  Supreme 
BeiniT  even  less  than  a  G,rain  of  dust  to  the  world 
itself.  There  is  no  conceivable  ratio  between  Finite 
and  Infinite.^  Our  human  personalit}'  ^  gives  a  false 
modification  to  all  our  conceptions  of  the  Infinite. 
But  if,  not  resting  in  the  sentiment  of  God,  which 
is  vague,  and  leads  rather  to  pantheistic  mysticism 
than  to  a  reasonable  faith,  w'e  take  the  fact  given  in 
our  nature  ;  the  primitive  Idea  of  God,  as  a  Being 
of  infinite  Power,  Wisdom  and  Goodness  involves 
no  contradiction.  This  is,  perhaps,  the  most  faith- 
ful expression  of  the  Idea  that  words  can  convey. 
This  language  does  not  define  the  nature  of  God, 
but  distinguishes  our  Idea  of  Him,  from  all  other 
ideas  and  conceptions  whatever.  Some  great  re- 
ligious souls  have  been  content  with  this  native 
idea;  have  found  it  satisfactory  both  to  Faith  and 
Reason,  and  confessed  with  the  ancients,  that  no 
man  by  searching  could  perfectly  find  out  God. 
Others  project  their  own  limitations  upon  their  con- 


'  M.  Cousin  thinks  God  is  comprehensible  by  the  human  spirit,  and 
even  attempts  to  construct  the  "  intellectual  existence  "  of  God.  Crea- 
tion he  makes  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  conceive  of!  See  his 
Introduction  to  the  History  of  Philosophy,  Linberg's  Translation,  p.  132- 
143.  One  would  naturally  think  human  presumption  could  go  no  farther; 
but  this  pleasing  illusion  is  dispelled  by  the  perusal  of  some  of  his  oppo- 
nents.    See  also  Ripley,  1.  c.  Vol.  I.  p.  271,  et  seq. 

'  Zenophanes  saw  farther  into  the  secret  than  some  others,  when  he 
said,  that  if  Horses  or  Lions  had  hands  and  were  to  represent  each  his 
Deity,  it  would  be  a  Horse  or  a  Lion,  for  these  animals  would  impose  their 
limitations  on  the  Godhead  just  as  man  has  done.  See  the  passage  in 
Eusebius,  Prcep.  Ev.  XHI.  13,  and  Clemens  Alex.  Strom.  V    14. 


28 


CONCEPTION  OF  GOD. 


ception  of  God,  making  him  to  appear  such  an  one 
as  themselves ;  thus  thej  reverse  the  sajing  of 
Scripture,  and  creating  a  phantom  in  their  own 
image,  call  it  God.  Thus  while  the  Idea  of  God, 
as  a  fact  given  in  man's  nature,  and  affording 
a  consistent  representation  of  its  Object,  is  perma- 
nent and  alike  in  all ;  while  the  Sentiment  of  God, 
though  vague  and  mysterious,  is  always  the  same  in 
itself,  the  popular  Conception  of  God  is  of  the  most 
various  and  evanescent  character,  and  is  not  the 
same  in  any  two  ages  or  men.  The  Idea  is  the 
substance ;  the  Conception  a  transient  phenomenon, 
which  at  best  only  imperfectly  represents  the  sub- 
stance. To  possess  the  Idea  of  God,  though  latent 
in  us,  is  unavoidable  ;  to  feel  its  comfort  is  natural ; 
to  dwell  in  the  Sentiment  of  God  is  delightful ;  but 
to  frame  an  adequate  conception  of  Deity,  and  set 
this  forth  in  words,  is  not  only  above  human  capa- 
bility, but  impossible  in  the  nature  of  things.  The 
abyss  of  God  is  not  to  be  fathomed  save  by  Him 
who  is  All-in-all. 


CHAPTER    III. 


EXTENT    AND    POWEK    OF    THE    RELIGIOUS    SENTIMENT. 

Now  this  innate  religious  sentiment  is  the  basis 
and  cause  of  all  religions.  Without  this  internal 
religious  element,  either  man  could  not  have  any 
religious  notions,  nor  become  religious  at  all,  or 
else  religion  would  be  something  foreign  to  his  na- 
ture, which  he  might  yet  be  taught  mechanically 
from  without,  as  Bears  are  taught  to  dance,  and 
Parrots  to  talk ;  but  which,  like  this  acquired  and 
unnatural  accomplishment  of  the  beast  and  the  bird, 
would  divert  him  from  his  true  nature  and  perfec- 
tion, rendering  him  a  monster,  but  less  of  a  man 
than  he  would  be  without  the  superfetation  of  this 
religion  upon  him.  Without  a  moral  nature,  we 
could  have  no  duties  in  respect  to  man  ;  without  a 
religious  nature,  no  duties  in  respect  of  God.  The 
foundation  of  each  is  in  man,  not  out  of  him.  If 
man  have  not  a  religious  nature,  miraculous  or  other 
revelations  can  no  more  render  him  religious  than 
fragments  of  Sermons  and  leaves  of  the  Bible  can 
make  a  Lamb  religious  when  mixed  and  eaten  with 


30  THE  RELIGIOUS   ELEMENT 

its  daily  food.  The  Law,  the  Duty  and  the  Des- 
tiny of  man,  as  of  all  God's  creatures,  is  writ  in 
himself,  and  by  the  Almighty's  hand.^  The  religious 
element  existing  within  us,  and  this  alone,  renders 
religion  the  duty,  the  privilege  and  the  welfare  of 
mankind.  Thus  Religion  is  not  a  superinduction 
upon  the  race,  as  some  would  make  it  appear ;  not 
an  after-thought  of  God  interpolated  in  human 
affairs,  when  the  work  was  otherwise  complete  ; 
but  it  is  an  original  necessity  of  man's  nature  ;  the 
religious  sentiment  is  deep  and  essentially  laid  in 
the  very  foundation  of  man. 

I.  Now  this  religious  element  is  universal.  This 
may  be  proved  in  several  ways.  Whatever  exists 
in  the  fundamental  nature  of  one  man,  exists  like- 
wise in  all  men,  though  in  different  degrees  and 
variously  modified  by  different  circumstances.  Hu- 
man nature  is  the  same  in  the  men  of  all  races, 
ages  and  countries.  Man  remains  always  identical, 
only  the  differing  circumstances  of  climate,  condi- 
tion, culture,  race,  nation  and  individual,  modify  the 
manifestations  of  what  is  at  bottom  the  same. 
Races,  ages,  nations  and  individuals  differ  only  in 
the  various  degrees  they  possess  of  particular  facul- 


'  See  the  treatise  of  Cicero  on  the  foundation  of  duties  in  the  essay  De 
Legibus,  Lib.  I.  It  may  surprise  some  men  that  a  Pagan  should  come 
at  the  truth  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  moral  obligation,  while  so 
many  moralists  have  shot  wide  of  the  mark.  See  the  discussion  of  the 
same  subject,  and  a  very  different  conclusion,  in  Paley's  Moral  Philoso- 
phy, and  Dymond's  Essays. 


UNIVERSAL  IN  MAN.  31 

ties,  and  in  the  development,  or  the  neglect  of  these 
faculties.  When,  therefore,  it  is  shown  that  the 
religious  sentiment  exists  as  a  natural  principle  in 
any  one  man,  its  existence  in  all  other  men,  that 
are,  were,  or  shall  be,  follows  unavoidably  from  the 
unity  of  human  nature. 

Again,  the  universality  of  the  religious  element 
is  confirmed  by  historical  arguments,  which  also 
have  some  force.  We  discover  religious  phenomena 
in  all  lands,  wherever  man  is  found.  They  appear 
alike  in  the  rudest  and  most  civilized  state  ;  among 
the  cannibals  of  New  Zealand,  and  the  refined  vo- 
luptuaries of  old  Babylon  ;  in  the  Esquimaux  fisher- 
man and  the  Parisian  philosopher.  The  history  of 
man  shows  no  period  in  which  these  phenomena  do 
not  appear.  Man  worships  in  spirit ;  feels  depend- 
ence, and  accountability,  and  gives  signs  of  these 
spiritual  emotions  all  the  world  over.  No  nation 
has  been  found  so  savage  that  they  have  not  attained 
this  ;  none  so  refined  as  to  outgrow  it.  The  widest 
observation,  therefore,  as  well  as  a  philosophical 
and  necessary  deduction  from  the  nature  of  man, 
warrants  the  conclusion  that  this  sentiment  is  uni- 
versal.^ 

But  there  are  some  apparent  exceptions  to  this 
rule,  at  first  glance.     A  few  persons  from  time  to 


'  Empirical  observation  alone  would  not  teach  the  universality  of  this 
element,  unless  it  were  delected  in  each  man,  for  a  generalization  can 
never  go  beyond  the  fads  it  embraces  ;  but  observation,  so  far  as  it  goes, 
confirms  the  abstract  conclusion  which  we  reach  independent  of  obser- 
vation. 


32  THE  RELIGIOUS   ELEMENT 

time  arise  and  claim  the  name  of  Atheist.  But  even 
they  admit  they  feel  this  religious  tendency ;  they 
acknowledge  a  sense  of  dependence,  which  they 
refer,  not  to  the  sound  action  of  a  natural  element 
in  their  constitution,  but  to  a  disease  of  the  soul,  to 
the  influence  of  culture,  the  instruction  of  their 
nurses,  and  count  it  as  an  obstinate  disease  of  their 
mind,  or  else  a  prejudice,  early  imbibed  and  not 
easily  removed.^  Even  if  some  one  could  be  found 
who  denied  that  he  ever  felt  any  religious  emotion 
whatever,  however  feebly,  this  would  prove  nothing 
against  the  universality  of  its  existence,  and  no  more 
against  the  general  rule  of  its  manifestation,  than 
the  rare  fact  of  a  child  born  with  a  single  arm 
proves  against  the  general  rule,  that  man  by  nature 
has  two  arms.^ 

Again,  travellers  tell  us  some  nations  have  no 
God,  no  Priests,  no  Worship,  and  therefore  give  no 
sign  of  the  existence  of  the  religious  element  in 
them.  Admitting  they  state  a  fact,  we  are  not  to 
conclude  the  religious  element  is  wanting  in  the 
savages ;  only  that  they,  like  infants,  have  not  at- 
tained the  proper  stage,  when  we  could  discover 


'  See  Hume's  Natural  History  of  Religion,  Introduction.  Essays, 
Lond.  1822,  Vol.  II.  p.  379. 

*  One  of  the  most  remarkable  Atheists  of  the  present  day  is  M.  Comte, 
author  of  the  valuable  and  sometimes  profound  work  Cours  de  Philoso- 
phie  positive,  Paris  1830-41,  6  vols.  8vo.  He  glories  in  the  name,  but  in 
many  places  gives  evidence  of  the  religious  element  existing  in  him,  in 
no  small  power.  See  Cudworth's  Intellectual  System,  &c.,  Ch.  IV. 
§  1  — 5.  Some  one  says  "  No  man  is  a  consistent  Atheist  —  if  such  be 
possible  —  who  admits  the  existence  of  any  general  law." 


UNIVERSAL  IN  MAN.  33 

signs  of  its  action.  But  these  travellers  are  mis- 
taken.^ Their  observations  have,  in  such  cases, 
been  superficial,  made  with  but  a  slight  knowledge 
of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  nation  they 
treat.  And,  besides,  their  prejudice  blinded  their 
eyes.  They  looked  for  a  regular  worship,  doctrines 
of  religion,  priests,  temples,  images,  forms  and  cere- 
monies. But  there  is  one  stage  of  religious  devel- 
opment in  which  none  of  these  signs  appear ;  and 
yet  the  religious  sentiment  is  at  its  work.  The 
travellers,  not  finding  the  usual  signs  of  worship, 
denied  the  existence  of  worship  itself,  and  even  of 
any  relio;ious  element  in  the  nation.  But  if  they 
had  found  a  people  ignorant  of  cookery  and  without 
the  implements  of  that  art,  it  would  be  quite  as 
wise  to  conclude  from  this  negative  testimony,  that 
the  nation  never  ate  nor  drank.  On  such  evidence,^ 
the  early  Christians  were  convicted  of  Atheism  by 

'  It  seems  surprising  so  acute  a  philosopher  as  Locke  (Essays,  B.  I.  ch. 
4,  §  8,)  should  prove  a  negative  by  hearsay,  and  assert  on  such  evidence  as 
Rhoe,  Jo.  de  Lery,  Martinierc,  Torry,  Ovington,  &c,  that  there  were 
"  whole  nations  amongst  whom  there  was  to  be  found  no  notion  of  a  God, 
no  religion."  See  the  able  remarks  of  his  friend  Shaftesbury,  who  is 
most  unrighteously  reckoned  a  speculative  enemy  to  religion.  Against  this 
opinion,  in  his  Characteristics,  ed.  1758,  Vol.  IV.  p.  8I,etseq.  8th  Letter  to 
a  Student,  &c.  Some  writers  seem  to  think  Christianity  is  never  safe  until 
Ihey  have  shown,  as  they  fancy,  that  man  cannot,  by  the  natural  exercise 
of  his  faculties,  attain  a  knowledge  of  even  the  simplest  and  most  ob- 
vious religious  truths.  Many  foolish  books  have  been  based  on  this  idea, 
which  is  yet  the  staple  of  many  sermons.  See  on  this  head  the  valuable 
remarks  of  M.  Comte,  ubi  supra.  Vol.  V.  p.  32,  et  seq. 

It  is  not  long  since  the  whole  nation  of  the  Chinese  were  accused  of 
Atheism,  and  that  by  writers  so  respectable  as  Le  Pere  de  Sainte  Marie, 
and  Le  Pere  Longobardi.     See,  who  will,  Leibnitz's  refutation  of  the 
charge.     Opp.  ed.  Dutens,  Vol.  IV.  Part  I.  p.  170,  et  seq. 
5 


34  THE  RELIGIOUS   ELEMENT 

the  Pagans,  and  subsequently  the  Pagans  by  the. 
Christians.^ 

There  is  still  one  other  case  of  apparent  excep- 
tion to  the  rule.  Some  persons  have  been  found, 
who,  in  early  childhood  were  separated  from  human 
society  and  grew  up  towards  the  years  of  maturity 
in  an  isolated  state,  having  no  contact  with  their 
fellow  mortals.  These  give  no  signs  of  the  religious 
sentiment  in  their  nature.  But  other  universal 
faculties  of  the  race,  the  tendency  to  laugh,  and  to 
speak  articulate  words,  give  quite  as  little  sign  of 
their  existence.^  But  when  these  unfortunate  per- 
sons are  exposed  to  the  ordinary  influence  of  life, 
the  religious,  like  other  faculties,  does  its  work. 
Hence  we  may  conclude  it  existed,  though  dormant 
until  the  proper  conditions  of  its  development  were 
supplied.     These  three  apparent  exceptions  serve 


'  Winslow,  with  others,  at  first  declared  the  American  Indians  had  no 
religion  or  knowledge  of  God,  but  he  afterwards  corrected  his  mistake. 
See  Francis's  Life  of  Eliot,  p.  32  et  seq.  Even  Meiners,  Kritische  Ges- 
chichte  der  Religionen,  Vol.  I.  p.  11-12,  admits  there  is  no  nation  with- 
out religious  observances.  See  also  Catlin's  Letters,  &c.  on  the  North 
American  Indians,  New  York  1841,  Vol.  I.  p. 156.  See  also  in  Pritchnrd's 
Physical  History  of  Mankind,  4th  ed.  London.  1841,  Vol.  I.  p.  188,  the 
statements  relative  to  the  Esquimaux,  and  his  correction  of  the  erroneous 
and  ill-natured  accounts  of  others.  If  any  nation  is  destitute  of  religious 
opinions  and  observances,  it  must  be  the  Esquimaux,  and  the  Bushmen 
of  South  Africa,  who  seem  to  be  the  lowest  of  the  human  race.  But  it 
is  clear,  from  the  statement  of  travellers  and  missionaries,  that  both  have 
religious  sentiments  and  opinions.  See  some  of  the  most  important  evi- 
dence collected  in  Pritchard.  The  Heathen  philosophers,  admitted  it  as 
a  fact  universally  acknoicledged  that  there  was  a  God. 

*  See  a  collection  of  the  most  remarkable  of  these  cases  in  Jahn's 
Appendix  Hermeneuticse,  etc.  Viennse,  1815,  Vol.  II.  p.  208,  et  seq.  and 
the  authors  there  cited. 


^ 


UNIVERSAL  IN  MAN.  35 

only  to  confirm  the  rule  that  the  religious  senti- 
ment, like  the  power  of  attention,  thought  and  love, 
is  universal  in  the  race. 

However,  like  other  faculties  this  is  possessed  in 
dift'erent  degrees  by  different  races,  nations  and 
individuals,  and  at  particular  epochs  of  the  world's 
or  the  individual's  history  acquires  a  predominance 
it  has  not  at  other  times.  It  seems  God  never  cre- 
ates two  races,  nations,  or  men  with  precisely  the 
same  endowments.  There  is  a  difference,  more  or 
less  striking,  between  the  intellectual,  aesthetic,  and 
moral  development  of  two  races,  or  nations,  or  even 
between  two  men  of  the  same  race  and  nation. 
This  difference  seems  to  be  the  effect,  not  of  the 
different  circumstances  whereto  they  are  exposed, 
but  of  the  different  endowments  with  which  they 
set  out.  If  we  watch  in  history  the  gradual  devel- 
opment and  evolution  of  the  human  race,  we  see 
that  one  nation  takes  the  lead  in  the  march  of 
mind,  pursues  science,  literature  and  the  arts; 
another  in  war,  and  the  practical  business  of  politi- 
cal thrift,  while  a  third  nation  alike  destitute  of 
science  and  political  skill,  takes  the  lead  in  Religion, 
and  in  the  comparative  purity  of  its  religious  con- 
ceptions surpasses  both. 

Three  forms  of  monotheistic  Religion  have,  at  va- 
rious times,  come  up  in  the  world's  history.  Two 
of  them  at  this  moment  outnumber  the  votaries  of 
all  other  religions,  and  divide  between  them  the 
more   advanced   civilization   of    mankind.     These 


36  THl:'.   RKI.IOIOUS    KLEMENT 

three  are  the  Mosaic,  the  Christian,  and  the  Maho- 
metan ;  all  recognising  the  unity  of  God,  the  reli- 
gious nature  of  man,  and  the  relation  between  God 
and  man.     All   of  these,   surprising  as  it  is,  came 
from  one  family  of  men,  who  spoke,  in  substance, 
the  same  language  ;  lived  in  the  same  country,  and 
had    the    same   customs   and   political   institutions. 
Even  that  wide-spread  and  more  monstrous  form  of 
Religion,  which  our  fathers  had  in  the  wilds  of  Eu- 
rope, betrays   its  likeness   to   this   Oriental  stock  ; 
and  that  form,  still  earlier,  which  dotted  Greece  all 
over  with  its  temples,  and  filled   the  isles  of  the 
Mediterranean  with    its    solemn    and    mysterious 
chant,  came  obviously  from  the  same  source.^     The 
beautiful  spirit  of  the  Greek,  modified,  enlarged  and 
embellished  what  oriental  piety  alone  called  down 
from  the  Empyrean.     The  nations  now  at  the  head 
of  modern  civilization,  do  not   appear  possessed  of 
creative  religious  genius,  so  to  say,  for  each  form  of 
worship,  that  has  prevailed  with  them,  is  derived 
from  some  other  race,  and  has  lost  more  than  it  has 
gained   by   the  transfer.     These  nations  are  more 
scientific  than  religious  ;  reflective  rather  than  spon- 
taneous ;  utilitarian  more  than  reverential  ;  and,  so 
far  as  history  goes,   have  never  created  a  mode  of 
Religion.    Their  faith,  like  their  choicer  fruits,  is  an 
importation   from  abroad,  not  an   indigenous  plant, 
though  now  happily  naturalized,  and  rendered  pro- 

'  This  Orientalism  of  the  religious  opinions  among  the  Europeans  has 
led  to  some  very  ahsiird  conceits ;  see  a  notorious  instance  in  Davie's 
Mythology  of  the  Druids. 


INDESTRUCTIBLE  ]\   MAX.  37 

ductive  ill  their  soil.  Of  all  nations  hitherto  known, 
these  are  tlie  most  disposed  to  reflection,  literature, 
science,  and  the  practical  arts,  while  the  Shemitish 
tribe  is  above  all  others  religious.  They  have  an 
influence  in  history  entirely  disproportionate  to  their 
numbers,  their  arts,  their  science,  or  their  laws. 
Out  of  the  heart  of  this  ancient  people  flowed  forth 
that  triple  stream  of  pious  life,  which  even  now 
gives  energy  to  the  pulsations  of  the  world.  Egypt 
and  Greece  have  stirred  the  intellect  of  mankind  ; 
and  spoken  to  our  love  of  the  Grand,  the  Beautiful, 
the  True,  faculties  that  lie  deep  in  us.  But  this 
Oriental  people  have  touched  the  soul  of  man,  and 
awakened  reverence  for  the  Good,  the  Holy,  the 
Altogether  Beautiful,  which  lies  in  the  profoundest 
deep  of  all.  The  religious  element  appears  least 
conspicuous,  perhaps,  in  some  nations  of  Australia  ; 
with  savages  in  general  it  is  in  its  infancy,  like  all 
the  nobler  attributes  of  man.^ 

II.  Again  ;  this  element  is  indestructible  in  hu- 
man nature.  It  is  not  in  the  power  of  caprice 
within,  nor  external  circumstances,  war  or  peace, 
freedom  or  slavery,  ignorance  or  refinement,  wholly 
to  abolish  or  destroy  it.  Its  growth  may  be  retard- 
ed, or  quickened  ;  its  power  misdirected,  or  suffer- 
ed to  flow  in  its  proper  channel.  But  no  violence 
from  within,  no  violence  from  without,  can  ever  de- 


'  M.  Comte  takes  a  very  different  view  of  the   matter,  and  has  both 
fact  and  philosophy  against  him. 


38  THE  RELIGIOUS  ELEMENT 

stroj  this  element.  It  were  as  easy  to  extirpate 
hunger  and  thirst  from  the  sound  living  body,  as 
this  sentiment  from  the  soul.  It  may  sleep.  It 
never  dies.  Kept  down  by  external  force  today,  it 
flames  up  to  heaven  in  streams  of  light  tomorrow. 
When  perverted  from  its  natural  course,  it  writes, 
in  devastation,  its  chronicle  of  wrongs, — a  horrid 
page  of  human  history,  which  proves  its  awful  and 
mysterious  power,  as  the  strength  of  the  human 
muscle  is  proved  by  the  distortions  of  the  maniac. 
Sensual  men,  who  hate  the  restraints  of  Religion, 
who  know  nothing  of  its  encouragements,  strive  to 
pluck  up  by  the  roots  this  plant  which  God  has 
set  in  the  midst  of  the  Garden.  But  there  it 
stands  —  the  tree  of  Knowledge,  the  tree  of  Life. 
Even  such  as  boast  the  name  of  Infidel  and  Atheist 
find,  unconsciously,  repose  in  its  wide  shadow,  and 
refreshment  in  its  fruit.  It  blesses  obedient  man. 
He  who  violates  the  divine  law,  and  thus  would 
wring  this  feeling  from  his  heart,  feels  it,  like  a 
heated  iron,  in  the  marrow  of  his  bones. 

III.  Still  farther.  This  religious  sentiment  is 
the  strongest  and  deepest  element  in  human  nature. 
It  depends  on  nothing  outside,  conventional  or  arti- 
ficial. It  is  identical  in  all  men  ;  not  a  similar 
thing,  but  the  same.  Superficially,  man  differs 
from  man,  in  the  less  and  more  ;  but  in  the  nature  of 
the  sentiment  all  agree,  as  in  whatever  is  deepest 
and  most  divine.  Out  of  the  profoujidest  abyss  in 
man  proceed  his  worship,  his  prayer,  his  hymn  of 


THE    STRONGEST  IN  MAN.  39 

praise.  The  histoi}'  of  tlie  world  shows  us  what 
a  space  Religion  fills.  She  is  the  mother  of  Philo- 
sophy and  the  Arts ;  has  presided  over  the  greatest 
wars.  She  holds  now  all  nations  with  her  un- 
seen hand  ;  restrains  their  passions,  more  powerful 
than  all  the  cunning  statutes  of  the  lawgiver  ;  awak- 
ens their  virtue  ;  allays  their  sorrows  with  a  mild 
comfort,  all  her  own  ;  brightens  their  hopes  with  the 
purple  ray  of  faith,  shed  through  the  sombre  cur- 
tains of  necessity. 

Religion  founds  society,  inspires  the  Lawgiver 
and  the  Artist  —  is  the  deep-moving  principle. 
Religion  has  called  forth  the  greatest  heroism  of 
past  ages  ;  the  proudest  deeds  of  daring  and  en- 
durance have  been  done  in  her  name.  Without 
Religion,  all  the  sages  of  a  kingdom  cannot  build 
a  city ;  but  with  it,  a  rude  fanatic  sways  the  mass 
of  men.  The  greatest  works  of  human  art  have 
risen  only  at  Religion's  call.  The  marble  is  pliant 
at  her  magic  touch,  and  seems  to  breathe  a  pious 
life.  The  chiseled  stone  is  instinct  with  a  living 
soul,  and  stands  there,  silent,  yet  full  of  hymns 
and  prayers  ;  an  embodied  aspiration,  a  thought 
with  wings  that  mock  at  space  and  time.  The 
Temples  of  the  East,  the  Cathedrals  of  the  West  ; 
Altar  and  Column  and  Statue  and  Image  —  these 
are  the  tribute  Art  pays  to  her.  Whence  did 
Michael  Angelo,  Phidias,  Praxiteles,  and  all  the 
mighty  sons  of  Art,  who  chronicled  their  awful 
thoughts  in  stone,  shaping  brute  matter  to  a  divine 
form,   or   building  up  the  Pyramid  and  Collonade, 


40  THE  RELIGIOUS  ELEMENT 

or  forcing  the  hard  elements  to  swell  into  the  arch, 
aspire  into  the  dome  or  the  fantastic  tower,  — 
whence  did  they  draw  their  inspiration  ?  All  their 
greatest  wonders  are  wrought  in  Religion's  name. 
In  tlie  very  dawn  of  time,  Genius  looks  through 
the  clouds  and  lifts  up  his  voice  in  hymns  and  songs 
and  stories  of  the  Gods,  and  the  Angel  of  Music 
carves  out  her  thanksgiving,  her  penitence,  her 
prayers  for  man,  on  the  unseen  air,  as  a  votive  gift  for 
her.  Her  sweetest  note,  her  most  majestic  chant, 
she  breathes  only  at  Religion's  call.  Thus  it  has 
always  been.  Men  are  found  without  cities,  towns, 
houses ;  without  lights  for  the  dark,  or  clothes  for 
the  cold  ;  without  Religion  —  no  nation.  A  thou- 
sand men  will  become  celibate  monks  for  Religion. 
Would  they  for  Gold,  or  Ease,  or  Fame  ? 

The  greatest  sacrifices  ever  made  are  offered  in 
the  name  of  Religion.  For  this  man  will  forego 
ease,  peace,  friends,  society,  wife  and  child,  all  that 
mortal  flesh  holds  dearest ;  no  danger  is  too  dan- 
gerous ;  no  suffering  too  stern  to  bear,  if  Religion 
say  the  word.  Simon  the  Stylite  will  stand  years 
long  on  his  pillar's  top  ;  the  devotee  of  Budha  and 
Fo  tear  off  his  palpitating  flesh  to  serve  his  God. 
The  Pagan  idolater,  bowing  down  to  a  false  image 
of  Stone,  renounces  his  possessions,  submits  to  bar- 
barous and  cruel  rites,  shameful  mutilations  of  his 
limbs  ;  gives  the  first-born  of  his  body  for  the  sin  of 
his  soul  ;  casts  his  own  person  to  destruction,  be- 
cause he  dreams  Baal,  or  Saturn,  Jehovah  or  Mo- 
loch demands  the  sacrifice.    The  Christian  idolater, 


THE  STRONGEST  IN  MAN.  41 

doing  equal  homage  to  a  Ijiiig  tlioiiglit,  gives  up 
Common  Sense,  Reason,  Conscience,  Love  of  his 
brother,  at  the  same  fancied  mandate ;  is  ready  to 
credit  most  obvious  absurdities ;  accept  contradic- 
tions ;  do  what  conflicts  witli  the  moral  sense  ;  be- 
lieve dogmas  that  make  life  dark,  eternity  dreadful, 
man  a  worm  and  God  a  tyrant ;  dogmas  that  make 
him  count  as  cursed  half  his  brother  men,  because 
told  such  is  his  duty,  in  the  name  of  Religion.  In 
this  name  Thomas  More,  the  ablest  head  of  his 
times,  will  believe  a  bit  of  bread  becomes  the  Al- 
mighty God,  when  a  lewd  priest  mumbles  his  jug- 
.gling  Latin  and  lifts  up  his  hands.  In  our  day, 
heads  able  as  Thomas  More's  believe  doctrines 
quite  as  absurd,  because  taught  as  Religion,  and 
God's  command.  In  its  behalf,  the  foolishest  teach- 
ing becomes  acceptable  ;  the  foulest  doctrines,  the 
grossest  conduct,  crimes  that,  like  the  fabled  ban- 
quet of  Thyestes,  might  make  the  sun  sicken  at  the 
sight  and  turn  back  affrighted  in  his  course,  —  these 
things  are  counted  as  beautiful,  superior  to  Reason, 
acceptable  to  God.  The  wicked  man  may  bless 
his  brother  in  crime  ;  the  unrighteous  blast  the  holy 
with  his  curse,  and  devotees  shall  shout  "  Amen," 
to  both  the  blessing  and  the  ban. 

On  what  other  authority  have  rites  so  bloody 
been  accepted  ;  or  doctrines  so  false  to  reason,  so 
libellous  of  God?  For  what  else  has  man  achieved 
such  works,  and  made  such  sacrifice  ?  In  what 
name  but  this,  will  the  man  of  vast  and  far  out- 
stretching   mind,   the    Counsellor,    the    Chief,   the 

G 


42  THE   RELIGIOUS  ELEMENT 

Sage,  the  native  King  of  men,  forego  the  vastness 
of  his  thought,  put  out  his  spirit's  eyes,  and  bow 
him  to  a  drivelling  wretch  who  knows  nothing  but 
treacherous  mummery  and  juggling  tricks  ?  In  re- 
ligion this  has  been  done  from  the  first  false  prophet 
to  the  last  false  priest,  and  the  pride  of  the  Under- 
standing is  abased  ;  the  supremacy  of  Reason  de- 
graded ;  the  majesty  of  Conscience  trampled  on  ; 
the  beautifulness  of  Faith  and  Love  trodden  down 
into  the  mire  of  the  streets.  The  hand,  the  foot, 
the  eye,  the  ear,  the  tongue,  the  most  sacred  mem- 
bers of  the  body ;  judgment,  imagination,  the  over- 
mastering faculties  of  mind  ;  justice,  mercy  and 
love,  the  fairest  affections  of  the  soul,  —  all  these 
have  been  reckoned  a  poor  and  paltry  sacrifice,  and 
lopped  of!  at  the  shrine  of  God  as  things  unholy. 
This  has  been  done,  not  only  by  Pagan  polytheists, 
and  savage  idolaters,  but  by  Christian  devotees, 
accomplished  scholars,  the  enlightened  men  of  en- 
lightened times. 

These  melancholy  results,  which  are  but  aberra- 
tions of  the  religious  sentiment,  the  disease,  not  the 
soundness  of  mankind,  have  often  been  confounded 
with  Religion  itself,  or  regarded  as  its  legitimate 
fruit.  Hence  men  have  said,  such  results  prove 
that  Religion  itself  is  a  popular  fury ;  the  foolish- 
ness of  the  people ;  the  madness  of  mankind. 
They  prove  a  very  different  thing.  They  show  the 
depth,  the  strength,  the  awful  power  of  that  ele- 
ment which  thus  can  overmaster  all  the  rest  of 
man,  passion  and  conscience,  reason  and  love.     Tell 


THE  STRONGEST   IN  MAN.  43 

a  man  his  interest  requires  a  sacrifice,  he  hesitates; 
convince  him  his  Religion  demands  it,  and  crowds 
rush  at  once,  and  jojful  to  a  martyr's  fiery  death. 
It  is  the  best  things  that  arc  capable  of  the  worst 
abuse  ;  the  very  abuse  may  test  the  value. ^ 

'  On  this  theme,  see  tlie  forcible  and  eloquent  remarks  of  Professor 
Whewell,  in  his  Sermons  on  the  foundation  of  morals,  2d  edition,  p.  28, 
et  seq.  a  work  well  worthy,  in  its  spirit  and  general  tone,  of  his  illustrious 
predecessors,  "  the  Latitude  men  about  Cambridge,"  in  the  brightest 
noon  of  England's  intellect. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


THE    IDEA    OF    RELIGION    CONNECTED    WITH    SCIENCE    AND    LIFE. 

Now  the  legitimate  action  of  the  religious  ele- 
ment produces  reverence.  This  may  ascend  into 
Trust,  Hope,  and  Love,  which  is  according  to  its 
nature  ;  or  descend  into  Doubt,  Fear  and  Hate, 
which  is  against  its  nature.  It  thus  rises,  or  falls, 
as  it  coexists  in  the  individual,  with  wisdom  and 
goodness,  or  with  ignorance  and  vice.  Its  legiti- 
mate action  leads  straightway  and  of  necessity  to 
reverence,  absolute  trust,  and  perfect  love  of  God. 
Thus,  there  can  be  but  one  kind  of  Religion,  as 
there  can  be  but  one  kind  of  lime  and  space.  It 
may  exist  in  different  degrees,  weak  or  powerful ; 
in  combination  with  other  sentiments,  love  or  hate, 
with  wisdom  or  folly,  and  thus  it  is  superficially 
modified,  just  as  Love,  which  is  always  the  same 
thing,  is  modified  by  the  character  of  the  man  who 
feels  it,  and  by  that  of  the  object  to  which  it  is 
directed.  Of  course,  then,  there  is  no  difference 
but  of  words  between  revealed  Religion  and  natural 
Religion,  for  all  actual   Religion  is  revealed  in  us. 


IDEA  OF    RELIGION.  45 

or  it  coukl  not  be  felt,  and  all  revealed  religion  is 
natural,  or  it  would  be  of  no  use.^  What  is  of  use 
to  man  lies  in  tlie  plane  of  his  consciousness,  neither 
above  it,  neither  below  it.  We  may  regard  it  from 
different  points  of  view,  and  give  corresponding 
names  to  our  partial  conceptions,  which  we  have 
purposely  limited,  and  so  speak  of  natural  and  re- 
vealed Religion  ;  Monotheistic,  Polytheistic  or  Pan- 
theistic, Pagan,  Jewish,  Christian,  Mahometan  Re- 
ligion. But  in  these  cases  the  distinction,  indicated 
by  the  terms,  belongs  to  the  thinker's  mind,  not  to 
Religion  itself,  the  object  of  thought.  Historical 
phenomena  of  Religion  vary  in  the  more  and  less. 
Some  express  it  purely  and  beautifully ;  others 
mingle  foreign  emotions  with  it,  and  but  feebly 
represent  the  pious  feeling. 

To  determine  the  question  what  is  Absolute,  that 
is  perfect  Religion,  we  are  not  to  gather  to  a  focus 
the  scattered  rays  of  all  the  various  forms  under 
which  Religion  has  appeared,  in  history,  for  we  can 
never  collect  the  Absolute  from  any  number  of  im- 
perfect phenomena ;  and,  besides,  in  making  the 
search  and  forming  an  eclecticism  from  all  the  histori- 
cal religious  phenomena,  we  presuppose  in  ourselves 
the  criterion  by  which  they  are  judged,  namely, 
the  Absolute  itself,  which  we  seek  to  construct, 
and  thus  move  only  in  a  circle,  and  end  where  we 

'  This  distinction  between  natural  and  revealed  religion  is  very  old. 
But  it  is  evidently  a  distinction  in  form  not  in  substance.  The  terms 
seem  to  have  risen  from  taking  an  exclusive  view  of  some  positire  and 
historical  form  of  religion  :    all  religions  claim  to  have  been  revealed. 


46  IDEA  OF  RELIGION. 

began.  To  answer  the  question,  we  must  go  back 
to  the  primitive  facts  of  religious  consciousness 
within  us.     Then  we  find  religion  is  voluntary 

OBEDIENCE  TO  THE  LAW  OF  GoD,  INW^\RD  AND  OUT- 
WARD OBEDIENCE  to  that  law  he  has  written  on  our 
nature,  revealed  in  various  wajs  through  Instinct, 
Reason,  Conscience,  and  the  Religious  Sentiment. 
Through  it  we  regard  Him  as  the  absolute  object 
of  Reverence,  Faith  and  Love.^  This  obedience 
may  be  unconscious,  as  in  little  children  who  have 
known  no  contradiction  between  duty  and  desire ; 
or  in  the  perfect  saint,  to  whom  all  duties  are  de- 
sirable, who  has  ended  the  contradiction  by  willing 

'  The  above  definition  or  Idea  of  Religion  is  not  given  as  the  only  or 
the  best  that  can  possibly  be  given,  but  simply  as  my  own,  the  best  I  can 
find.  If  others  have  a  better  I  shall  rejoice  at  it ;  I  will  give  some  of 
the  more  striking  that  have  been  set  forth  by  others.  Plato  :  "  A  Like- 
ness to  God,  according  to  our  ability."  John  Smith  :  •'  God  is  first  Truth 
and  primitive  Goodness.  True  Religion  is  a  vigorous  efilux  and  emana- 
tion of  both  upon  the  Spirit  of  man,  and  therefore  is  called  a  participa- 
tion of  the  divine  nature Religion  is  a  heaven-born  thing ;   the 

seed  of  God  in  the  spirits  of  men  whereby  they  are  formed  to  a  simili- 
tude and  likeness  of  Himself."  Kant:  "Reverence  for  the  moral  law 
as  a  divine  command."  Schelling  :  "  The  union  of  the  Finite  and  the  In- 
finite." Fichte  :  "  Faith  in  a  moral  government  of  the  world."  Hegel: 
"  Morality  becoming  conscious  of  the  free  universality  of  its  concrete 
essence."  This  will  convey  no  idea  to  one  not  acquainted  with  the  pecu- 
liar phraseology  of  Hegel.  It  seems  to  mean,  Perfect  mind  becoming 
conscious  of  itself.  Schleiermacher  :  "  Immediate  self-consciousness  of 
the  absolute  dependence  of  all  the  finite  on  the  infinite."  Hase  :  "  Striv- 
ing after  the  Absolute,  which  is  in  itself  unattainable  ;  but  by  love  of 
it  man  participates  of  the  divine  perfection."  WoUaston  :  "  An  obliga- 
tion to  do  what  ought  not  to  bo  omitted,  and  to  forbear  what  ought  not 
to  be  done."  Jeremy  Taylor  :  "  The  whole  duty  of  man,  comprehending 
in  it  justice,  charity  and  sobriety."  For  the  opinions  of  the  ancients, 
see  a  treatise  of  Nitzsch,  in  Studien  und  Kritiken  for  1828,  p.  527  et 
eeq. 


RELIGION   AND  THEOLOGY.  47 

himself  God's  will,  and  thus  becoming  one  with 
God.  It  may  be  conscious,  as  with  many  men 
whose  strife  is  not  yet  over. 

Now  there  are  two  tendencies  connected  with 
Religion,  one  is  speculative ;  here  the  man  is  em- 
ployed in  matters  pertaining  to  Religion,  to  God, 
to  man's  religious  nature,  and  his  relation  and  con- 
nection with  God.  The  result  of  this  tendency  is 
theology.  This  is  not  Religion  itself.  It  is  man's 
thought  about  Religion  ;  the  philosophy  of  divine 
things  ;  the  science  of  Religion.  Its  sphere  is  the 
mind  of  man.  Religion  and  Theology  are  no  more 
to  be  confounded  than  the  stars  with  astronomy. 
Religion  itself  is  always  the  same.  Theology 
chan2;es  from  ape  to  aiie.  The  most  various  doc- 
trines  may  exist  in  connection  with  Religion.  But 
it  depends  not  on  them.^ 

The  other  tendency  is  Practical ;  here  the  man 
is  employed  in  acts  of  obedience  to  Religion.  The 
result  of  this  tendency  is  morality.  This  is  not 
Religion  itself,  but  the  hfe  Religion  demands. 
There  may  be  morality  deep  and  true  with  Uttle 

'  Mucli  difficulty  has  arisen  from  this  confusion  of  Religion  and  Theol- 
orry  ;  it  is  one  proximate  cause  of  that  rancorous  hatred  which  exists  be- 
tween the  theological  parties  of  the  present  day.  Each  connects  Rehgion 
exclusively  with  its  own  sectarian  theology.  But  there  were  great  men 
before  Agamemnon ;  Good  men  before  Moses.  Theology  is  a  natural 
product  of  the  human  mind.  Each  man  has  some  notion  of  divine 
things;  that  is,  a  theology;  if  he  collect  them  into  a  system,  it  is  a 
system  of  theology,  which  differs  from  that  of  every  other  man  living. 
There  is  but  one  Religion,  though  many  theologies.  Sec  de  Wette  Ueber 
Religion  urid  Theologie,  Part  1.  Ch.  I. —  111. ;  Fart  II.  Ch.  I.— III.  ;  his 
Dogiiiatik,  §  4-d. 


48  RELIGION  AND  MORALITY. 

Religion,  for  a  sharp  analysis  separates  between 
the  religious  and  moral  elements  in  man.^  Morality 
is  the  harmony  between  man's  action  and  God's 
law.  It  is  the  sign  of  Religion.  In  its  highest 
and  only  true  form,  it  implies  Religion  just  as  Wis- 
dom implies  love.  Piety  or  Love  of  God  is  the 
substance  of  Religion  ;  morality,  or  love  of  man, 
its  form.  They  mutually  involve  one  another,  still 
experience  shows  that  man  may  see  and  observe 
the  distinction  between  right  and  wrong,  clearly 
and  disinterestedly,  without  feeling  as  such,  rever- 
ence, or  love  of  God  ;  that  is,  he  may  be  truly  moral 
up  to  a  certain  point,  without  being  religious,  though 
he  cannot  be  truly  religious,  without  at  the  same 
time  being  moral  also.  But  in  a  harmonious  man, 
the  two  are  practically  inseparable  as  substance 
and  form.  The  purely  moral  man,  in  the  actions, 
thoughts,  and  feelings  which  relate  to  his  fellow 
mortal,  obeys  the  eternal  law  of  duty,  revealed  in 
his  nature,  as  such,  and  from  love  of  that  law,  with- 
out regard  to  its  Author.  The  religious  man  obeys 
the  same  law,  but  regards  it  as  the  will  of  God. 
One  rests  in  the  Law,  the  other  only  in  its  Author. 
Now  Religion  itself  must  be  the  same  thing  in 
each  man  ;  not  a  similar  thing,  but  just  the  same 

'  It  seems  plain,  that  the  ethical  and  religious  element  in  man  are  not 
the  same  ;  at  least,  that  they  are  as  unlike  as  Memory  and  Imagination, 
though,  like  those,  they  act  most  harmoniously  in  conjunction.  It  is  true 
we  cannot  draw  a  line  between  them  as  between  sight  and  hearing,  but 
this  inability  to  tell  where  one  begins  and  the  other  ends,  is  no  argument 
against  the  separate  existence  of  the  faculties  themselves.  See  Kant, 
Religion,  Vorrede. 


DIFFERENCES  IN  RELIGION.  49 

thing,  differing  onlj  in  degree^  not  in  kind,  and  in 
its  direction  towards  one  or  many  objects,  in  both 
of  which  particulars  it  is  influenced,  in  some  mea- 
sure by  external  circumstances.  Now  since  man 
exists  under  most  various  conditions,  and  in  widely 
different  degrees  of  civilization,  it  is  plain  that  the 
religious  element  must  appear  under  various  forms, 
accompanied  with  various  doctrines,  as  to  the  num- 
ber and  nature  of  its  Objects,  the  Deities  ;  with 
various  rites,  forms  and  ceremonies,  as  its  means, 
to  appease,  propitiate  and  serve  these  Objects ; 
with  various  organizations,  designed  to  accomplish 
the  purposes  which  Religion  is  supposed  to  demand, 
and  in  short,  with  various  and  even  opposite  effects 
upon  life  and  character.  As  all  men  are  at  bottom 
the  same,  but  as  no  two  nations  or  ages  are  exactly 
alike  in  character,  circumstances,  or  development, 
therefore,  though  the  religious  element  be  the  same 
in  all,  we  must  expect  to  find  that  its  manifesta- 
tions are  never  exactly  alike  in  any  two  ages  or 
nations,  though  they  give  the  same  name  to  their 
form  of  worship.  If  we  look  still  more  minutely, 
we  see  that  no  two  men  are  exactly  alike  in  charac- 
ter, circumstances  and  development,  and  therefore 
that  no  tVA^o  men  can  exhibit  their  Religion  in  just 
the  same  way,  though  they  kneel  at  the  same  altar, 
and  pronounce  the  same  creed.  From  the  differ- 
ence between  men,  it  follows,  that  there  must  be 
as  many  different  subjective  conceptions  of  God, 
and  forms  of  Religion,  as  there  are  men  and  women 
who  think  about  God,  and  apply  their  thoughts  and 


50  RELIGIOUS  PHENOMENA. 

feelings  to  life.  Hence,  though  Religion  itself  is 
always  the  same  in  all,  the  doctrines  of  Religion,  or 
theology;  the  forms  of  Religion,  or  mode  of  wor- 
ship ;  and  the  pra-ctice  of  Religion,  which  is  morality, 
cannot  be  the  same  thing  in  any  two  men,  though 
one  mother  bore  them,  and  they  were  educated  in 
the  same  way.  The  conception  we  form  of  God  ; 
our  notion  about  man  ;  the  relation  between  him  and 
God ;  the  duties  which  grow  out  of  that  relation,  may 
be  taken  as  the  exponent  of  all  the  man's  thoughts, 
feelings  and  life.  They  are  therefore  alike,  the 
measure  and  the  result  of  the  total  development  of 
a  man,  an  age,  or  race.  If  these  things  are  so, 
then  the  phenomena  of  Religion  —  like  those  of 
Science  and  Art — must  vary  from  land  to  land, 
and  age  to  age,  with  the  varying  civilization  of 
mankind  ;  must  be  one  thing  in  New  Zealand,  and 
the  first  century,  and  something  quite  different  in 
New  England,  and  the  fifty-ninth  century.  They 
must  be  one  thing  in  the  wise  man,  and  another  in 
the  foolish  man.  They  must  vary  also  in  the  same 
individual,  for  a  man's  wisdom,  goodness,  and  gen- 
eral character,  affect  the  phenomena  of  his  Religion. 
The  Religion  of  the  boy  and  the  man,  of  Saul  the 
youth,  and  Paul  the  aged,  how  unlike  they  appear. 
The  boy's  prayer  will  not  fill  the  man's  heart ;  nor 
the  stripling  son  of  Zebedee  comprehend  that  devo- 
tion and  life,  which  he  shall  enjoy  when  he  becomes 
the  saint  mature  in  years. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    THREE    GREAT    HISTORICAL    FORMS    OF    RELIGION. 

Looking  at  the  religious  history  of  the  race,  and 
especially  at  that  portion  of  the  human  race  which 
has  risen  highest  in  the  scale  of  progress,  we  see 
that  the  various  phenomena  of  Religion  may  be 
summed  up  in  three  distinct  classes  or  types,  cor- 
responding to  three  distinct  degrees  of  civilization, 
and  almost  inseparable  from  them.  These  are 
Fetichism,  Polytheism,  and  Monotheism.  But 
this  classification  is  imperfect,  and  wholly  external, 
though  of  use  for  the  present  purpose.  It  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  we  never  find  a  nation  in  which 
either  mode  prevails  alone.  Nothing  is  truer  than 
this,  that  minds  of  the  same  spiritual  growth,  see 
the  same  spiritual  truth.  Thus,  a  savage  saint, 
living  in  a  nation  of  Idolaters  or  Polytheists,  wor- 
ships the  one  true  God,  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth  has 
done.  In  a  Christian  land,  superstitious  men  may 
be  found,  who  are  as  much  Idolaters  as  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, or  Jeroboam. 

I.  Fetichism  denotes  the  worship  of  visible  ob- 


52  FETICHISM. 

jects,  such  as  beasts,  birds,  fish,  insects,  trees, 
mountains,  the  stars,  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  earth, 
the  sea  and  air,  as  types  of  the  infinite  Spirit.  It 
is  the  worship  of  Nature.^  It  includes  many  forms 
of  rehgious  observances  that  prevailed  widely  in 
ancient  days,  and  still  continue  among  savage  tribes. 
It  belongs  to  a  period  in  the  progress  of  the  indi- 
vidual, or  society,  when  civilization  is  low,  the 
manners  wild  and  barbarous,  and  the  intellect,  act- 
ing in  ignorance  of  the  causes  at  work  around  it ; 
when  man  neither  understands  nature,  nor  himself. 
Some  writers  suppose  the  human  race  started  at 
first  with  a  pure  Theism  ;  for  the  knowledge  of 
truth,  say  they,  must  be  older  than  the  perception  of 
error,  in  this  respect.  It  seems  the  sentiment  of 
man  would  lead  him  to  the  one  God.  Doubtless 
it  would  if  the  conditions  of  its  action  were  perfectly 
fulfilled.  But  as  this  is  not  done  in  a  state  of  ig- 
norance and  barbarism,  therefore  the  religious  sen- 
timent mistakes  its  object,  and  sometimes  worships 
the  symbol  more  than  the  spirit  it  stands  for. 

In  this  form,  not  only  the  common  objects  above 
enumerated,  but  gems,  metals,  stones  that  fell  from 


*  It  will  probably  be  denied  by  some,  that  these  objects  were  wor- 
shiped as  symbols  of  the  deity.  It  seems,  however,  that  even  the  most 
savage  nations  regarded  their  Idols  only  as  Types  of  God.  On  this  sub- 
ject, see  Constant,  Religion,  &c.  5  vols.  1824.  Oldendorp,  Geschiehte 
der  Mission  — auf— St.  Thomas,  &c.  Barby.  1777,  p.  318,  et  seq. 
Comte,  Cours  de  Philosophic  Positive,  Vol.  V.,  Stuhr.  Allg.  Gesch.  der 
Religionsformen,  2  vols.  Berlin,  1838,  8vo.  Meiners,  ubi  supra,  and  the 
numerous  accounts  of  the  savage  nations,  by  missionaries,  travellers,  &c. 
Catlin,  ubi  supra,  Vol.  1.  p.  35,  et  seq    p.  88,  et  seq.  p.  l.")6,  et  seq.  &c. 


FETICHISM.  53 

heaven/ images,  carved  bits  of  wood,  stuffed  skins  of 
beasts,  like  the  medicine-bags  of  the  North  American 
Indians,  are  reckoned  as  divinities,  and  so  become 
objects  of  adoration.^  But  in  this  case  the  visible 
object  is  idealized ;  not  worshiped  as  the  brute 
thing  it  really  is,  but  as  the  type  and  symbol  of  God. 
Nature  is  an  Apparition  of  the  Deity,  God  in  a  mask. 
Brute  matter  was  never  an  object  of  adoration. 
"  Thus  the  Egyptians,  who  worshiped  the  Croco- 
dile, did  not  worship  it  as  a  Crocodile,  but  as  a 
symbol  of  God,  an  appropriate  one,"  says  Plutarch, 
"  for  it  alone,  of  all  animals,  has  no  tongue,  and 
God  needs  none  to  speak  his  power  and  glory." 
Similar  causes,  it  may  be,  led  to  the  worship  of 
other  animals.  Thus  the  Hawk  was  a  type  of 
divine  foresight;  the  Bull  of  strength ;  the  Serpent 
of  mystery.  The  Savage  did  not  worship  the  Buf- 
falo, but  the  Manitou  of  all  Buffaloes,  the  universal 
cause  of  each  particular  effect.  Still  more,  there  is 
something   mysterious    about  the  animals.     Their 


'  These  Stone-fetiches  are  called  Baetylia  by  the  learned.  Cybele  was 
worshiped  in  the  form  of  a  black  stone,  in  Asia  Minor.  Theophrast. 
Charact.  16.  Lucian  Psudoinant,  §  30.  The  ancient  Laplanders,  also 
worshiped  large  stones,  called  Seiteh.  See  SchefFer's  Lappland.  In  the 
time  of  Pausanias.  at  Phorae,  in  Achaia,  there  were  nearly  thirty  square 
stones,  called  by  the  names  of  the  Gods,  and  worshiped.  Lib.  VII.  ch. 
22,  ed.  Lips.  1838,  Vol.  II.  p.  CIS.  Rough  stones,  he  adds,  formerly 
received  divine  honors  universally  in  Greece. 

*  See  Catlin,  ubi  supra.  See  also  Legis  Fundgruben  des  Alten  Nor- 
dens,  2  vols.  8vo.  Leip.  1829,  and  his  Alkuna,  Nordische  und  Nord- 
Slawische  Mythologie,  Vol.  I.,  8vo.  Leip.  1831.  Mone  Geschichte  der 
Heidenthums  in  Nordlichen  Europa,  2  vols.  8vo.  Leip.  1S22.  See 
Grimms  Deutsche  Mythologie,  Gott.  1835,  for  this  worship  of  nature  in 
the  North. 


54  FETICHISM. 

instinctive  knowledge  of  coming  storms,  aad  other 
events ;  the  wondrous  foresight  of  the  Beaver,  the 
Bee  ;  the  sagacity  of  the  Dog ;  the  obscurity  at- 
tending all  their  emotions,  helped,  no  doubt,  to 
procure  them  a  place  among  powers  greater  than 
human.  It  is  the  Unknown  they  worship  in  com- 
mon things  ;  at  this  stage,  man,  whose  emotions 
are  understood,  is  never  an  object  of  adoration. 

Feticism  is  the  infancy  of  Religion.^  Here  the 
religious  sentiment  is  still  in  the  arms  of  rude,  savage 
life.  Sensation  prevails  over  reflection.  It  is  a 
deification  of  nature,  "  All  is  God,  but  God  him- 
self." It  loses  the  Infinite  in  the  finite  ;  worships 
the  creature  more  than  the  Creator.  Its  lowest 
form  —  for  in  this  lowest  deep,  there  is  a  lower 
deep  —  is  the  worship  of  beasts;  the  highest  the 
sublime,  but  deceitful  reverence  which  the  old  Sa- 
baean  paid  the  host  of  Heaven,  or  which  some 
Grecian  or  Indian  philosopher  offered  to  the  Uni- 
verse personified,  and  called  Pan,  or  Brahma. 
Then  all  the  mass  of  created  things  w^as  a  Fetiche. 
God  was  worshiped  in  a  sublime  and  devout,  but 
bewildering  Pantheism.  He  was  not  considered  as 
distinct  from  the  Universe.  Pantheism  and  Feti- 
chism  are  nearly  allied.^ 


'  Some  writers  have  supposed  there  was  a  state  anterior  to  the 
fetichistic,  in  which  man  had  no  religious  ideas,  or  emotions  whatever. 
But  the  supposition  is  not  only  gratuitous,  but  unphilosophical,  also,  for 
man  being  always  the  same,  his  essential  wants  are  likewise  the  same, 
and  differ  only  in  the  degree  of  their  development. 

^  In  consequence  of  the  opinion  in  fetichistic  nations,  that  external 
things  have  a  mysterious  life,  M.  Comte,  ubi  supra,  Vol.  V.  p.  36,  et  seq. 


FETICHTSM.  65 

In  the  lowest  form  of  this  worship,  so  far  as  we 
can  gather  from  the  savage  tribes,  each  individual 
has  his  own  peculiar  fetiche,  a  beast,  an  image,  a 
stone,  a  mountain,  or  a  star,  a  concrete  and  visible 
tjpe  of  God  !  For  it  seems,  in  this  state,  that  all,  or 
most  external  things,  are  supposed  to  have  a  life 
analogous  in  kind  to  ours,  but  more  or  less  intense 
in  degree.  The  concrete  form  is  but  the  veil  of 
God,  like  that  before  Isis,  in  Egypt.  There  are 
no  priests,  for  each  man  has  access  to  his  own  deity 
at  will.  Worship  and  prayer  are  personal,  and 
without  mediators.  The  age  of  the  priesthood,  as 
a  distinct  class,  has  not  come.  Worship  is  entirely 
free  ;  there  is  no  rite,  established  and  fixed.  Theo- 
logical doctrines  are  not  yet  formed.  There  are 
no  mysteries  in  which  each  may  not  share. 

This  state  of  Fetichism  continues  as  long  as  man 
is  in  the  gross  state  of  ignorance  which  renders  it 
possible.  Next,  as  the  power  of  abstraction  and 
generalization  becomes  enlarged,  and  the  qualities 
of  external  nature  are  understood,  there  are  con- 
crete and  visible  Gods  for  the  family ;  next  for 
the  tribe  ;  then  for  the  nation.  But  their  power 
is  supposed  to  be  limited  within  certain  bounds.  A 
subsequent  generalization  gives  an  invisible  but  still 
concrete  Deity  for  each  department  of  nature  ;  the 
earth  ;  the  sea  ;  the  sky. 


discozers  traces  of  it  in  animals.  When  a  savage,  a  child,  or  a  dog,  first 
hears  a  watch  tick,  each  supposes  it  endowed  with  life,  "  whence  re- 
sults, by  natural  consequence,  a  Fetichism,  which,  at  bottom,  is  common  to 
all  three  I'     Here  he  confounds  the  si<rn  with  the  cause. 


56  FETICHISM. 

Now  as  soon  as  there  is  a  fetiche  for  the  family, 
or  the  tribe,  a  mediator  becomes  needed  to  interpret 
the  will,  and  ensure  the  favor  of  that  fetiche,  to 
bring  rain,  or  plenty,  or  success,  and  to  avert  im- 
pending evils.  Such  are  the  angekoks  of  the  Es- 
quimaux, the  medicine-men  of  the  Mandans,  the 
jugglers  of  the  negroes.  Then  a  priesthood  grad- 
ually springs  up ;  at  first  possessing  none  but  spirit- 
ual powers ;  at  length  it  surrounds  its  God  with 
mysteries;  excludes  him  from  the  public  eye;  es- 
tablishes forms,  sacrifices  and  doctrines ;  limits 
access  to  the  Gods  ;  becomes  tyrannical  ;  aspires 
after  political  power,  and  founds  a  theocracy,  the 
worst  of  despotisms,  the  earliest,  and  the  most  last- 
ing.^ Still  it  has  occupied  a  vast  and  indispensable 
position  in  the  development  of  the  human  race. 

The  highest  form  of  Fetichism  is  the  worship  of 
the  stars,  or  of  the  universe.  Here  it  easily  branches 
off  into  Polytheism.  Indeed  it  is  impossible  to  tell 
where  one  begins  and  the  other  ends,  for  traces  of 
each  are  found  in  all  the  others.  The  Great 
Spirit  is  worshiped,  perhaps,  in  all  stages  of  Fe- 
tichism.    The  Fetiche    and    the   Manitou,   visible 


'  See  at  the  end  of  Hodges's  "  Elihu,"  «&;c  ,  London  1750,  1  vol.  4to,  a 
striking  account  of  the  manner  in  which  religious  forms  are  established, 
taken  from  a  French  publication  which  was  burned  by  the  common 
hangman  at  Paris.  See  also  on  the  establishment  and  influence  of  the 
priesthood  upon  religion,  Constant,  ubi  supra.  Vol.  II.  Liv.  III.  IV.  ;  Vol. 
IV.  passim.  His  judgment  of  the  Priesthood,  though  often  just,  is  some- 
times too  severe.  Comte,  ubi  supra.  Vol.  V.  p.  57,  et  seq.  On  the  Priest- 
hood among  savage  nations,  see  Pritchard,  ubi  supra,  Vol.  I.  p.  206,  et  seq. 
Meinere,  ubi  supra,  Vol.  II.  p.  481-602. 


FETICHISM,  67 

types,  are  not  the  Great  Spirit.  But  even  in  the 
worship  of  many  Gods,  or  of  one  alone,  traces  of 
the  ruder  form  still  linger.  The  individual  fetiche 
is  preserved  in  the  Amulet,  worn  as  a  charm  ;  in 
the  fio;ure  of  an  animal  painted  on  the  dress,  the 
armor,  or  the  flesh  of  the  worshiper.  The  family 
fetiche  sm'vives  in  the  household  Gods ;  the  Penates 
of  the  Romans ;  the  Teraphim  of  Laban  ;  the  Idol 
of  Micah.  The  fetiche  of  the  tribe  still  lives  in 
the  Lares  of  the  Roman  ;  the  patron  God  of  each 
Grecian  people  ;  in  some  animal  treated  with  great 
respect,  or  idealized  in  art,  as  the  Bull  Apis,  the 
brazen  Serpent,  Horses  consecrated  to  the  Sun  in 
Solomon's  Temple  ; '  in  an  Image  of  the  Deity, 
like  the  old  wooden  statues  of  Minerva,  always  re- 
ligiously kept,  or  the  magnificent  figures  of  the 
Gods  in  marble,  ivory  or  gold,  the  productions  of 
maturest  art;  in  some  chosen  symbol,  the  Palla- 
dium, the  Ancilia,  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant.  The 
fetiche  of  the  nation,  almost  inseparably  connected 
with  the  former,  is  still  remembered  in  the  mystical 
cherubim,  and  most  holy  place  among  the  Jews ;  in 
the  Olympian  Jove  of  Greece,  and  the  Capitoline 
Jupiter  of  Rome ;  in  the  Image  of  "  the  Great 
Goddess  Diana,  which  fell  down  from  Jupiter."  It 
appears  also  in  reverence  for  particular  places  for- 
merly deemed  the  local  and  exclusive  residence  of 


'  Vatke,  Biblische  Theologie,  Vol.  I.  1835,  attempts  to  trace  out  the 
connection  of  Fetichisin  witli  the  Jewish  ritual,  but  someliines  sees 
Fetichism,  where  nothing  but  prejudice  could  discover  it,  perhaps. 

8 


68  FETICHISM. 

the  fetiche, —  such  as  the  Caaba  at  Mecca;  He- 
bron, Moriah  and  Bethel  in  Judea ;  Delphi  in 
Greece,  and  the  great  gathering  places  of  the 
North-men  in  Europe,  spots  deemed  holy  by  the 
superstitious  even  now,  and  therefore  made  the  site 
of  Christian  Churches.' 

Other  and  more  general  vestiges  of  Fetichism 
remain  in  the  popular  superstitions  ;  in  the  belief  of 
signs,  omens,  auguries,  divination  by  the  flight  of 
birds,  and  other  accidental  occurrences ;  in  the 
notion  that  unusual  events,  thunder,  and  earth- 
quakes, and  pestilence,  are  peculiar  manifestations 
of  God  ;  that  he  is  more  specially  present  in  a  cer- 
tain place,  as  a  Church,  or  time,  as  the  Sabbath,  or 
the  hour  of  death ;  is  pleased  with  actions  not 
natural,  sacrifices,  fasts,  penance  and  the  like." 
Perhaps  no  form  of  Religion  has  yet  been  adopted, 
which  has  not  the  stain  of  Fetichism  upon  it.  The 
popular  Christian  theology  is  full  of  it.  The  names 
of  the  constellations  are  records  of  Fetichism  that 
will  long  endure.' 

Under  this  form  Religion  has  the  smallest  sound 
influence  upon  life.  The  religious  does  not  aid  the 
moral  element.    The  supposed  demands  of  Religion 


'  See  Mone,  ubi  supra,  Vol.  I.  p.  23,  et  seq.  p.  43,  et  seq.  p.  113,  et  seq. 
p.  249,  et  seq.  and  elsewhere. 

'^  The  great  religious  festivals  of  the  Christians,  Yule  and  Easter,  are 
easily  traced  back  to  such  an  occasion,  at  least  to  analogous  festivals  of 
fetichistic  or  polytheistic  people.  The  festival  of  John  the  Baptist  musj 
be  {)ut  in  the  same  class.  See  some  details  on  this  subject  in  a  very  poor 
book  of  Nork's,  Der  Mystagog,  &c. 

*  See  Creutzer,  Symbolik  und  Mythologie,  3d  ed.  Vol.  I.  p.  30,  et  seq 


FETICHISM.  59 

seem  capricious  to  the  last  degree,  unnatural  and" 
absurd.  The  imperfect  priesthood  of  necromancers 
and  jugglers,  —  which  belong  to  this  period,  —  en- 
hances the  evil  by  multiplying  rites  ;  encouraging 
asceticism  ;  laying  heavy  burthens  upon  the  people  ; 
demandine:  odious  mutilations  and  horrible  sacri- 
iices,  often  of  human  victims,  in  the  name  of  God, 
and  in  helping  to  keep  Religion  in  its  infiint  state, 
by  prohibiting  the  secular  eye  to  look  upon  its  mys- 
terious jugglery,  and  forbidding  the  bans  between 
Faith  and  Knowledge.  Still  this  class,  devoted 
to  speculation  and  study,  does  great  immediate 
service  to  the  race,  by  promoting  science  and  art, 
and  indirectly  and  against  its  will  contributes  to 
overturn  the  form  it  designs  to  support.  The  priest- 
hood comes  unavoidably.' 

In  a  low  form  of  Fetichism,  a  law  of  nature  seems 
scarce  ever  recognised.  All  things  have  a  life  .of 
their  own,  all  phenomena,  growth,  decay,  and  re- 
production ;  the  seasons  of  the  year,  the  changes 
in  the  sky,  and  similar  things,  depend  on  the  caprice 
of  the  Deities.  The  jugglers  can  make  it  rain  ;  a 
witch  can  split  the  moon ;  a  magician  heal  the  sick. 
Law  is  resolved  into  miracle.  The  most  cunning 
men,  w  ho  understand  the  laws  of  nature  better  than 
others,  are  miracle-workers,  magicians,  priests, 
necromancers,  astrologers,  soothsayers,  physicians, 


'  See  the  remarks  of  Lafitau.  Moeurs  des  sauvages  Ameriquains,  &c.. 
2  vols.  4to,  Paris,  J734,  Vol.  I.  p.  lOS-456.  His  work  is  amazingly  super- 
ficial, but  contains  now  and  then  a  good  thing. 


60  FETICHISM. 

general  mediators  and  interpreters  of  the  Gods ;  as 
the  Mandans  called  them  "  great  medicine-men."  ^ 

Then  as  men  experience  both  joy  and  grief,  pain 
and  pleasure,  and  as  they  are  too  rude  in  thought  to 
see  that  both  are  but  different  phases  of  the  same 
thing,  and  affliction  is  but  success  in  a  mask,  it  is 
supposed  they  cannot  be  the  work  of  the  same 
Divinity.  Hence  comes  the  wide  division  into  good 
and  evil  Gods,  a  distinction  found  in  all  religions, 
and  carefully  preserved  in  the  theological  doctrines 
of  the  Christian  church.  Worship  is  paid  both  to 
the  good  and  evil  deity.  A  sacrifice  is  offered  to 
avert  the  wrath  of  the  one,  and  secure  the  favor  of 
the  other.  The  sacrifice  corresponds  to  the  charac- 
ter ascribed  to  the  Deity,  and  this  depends  again 
on  the  national  and  personal  character  of  the  de- 
votee.^ 

Now  in  that  stage  of  civilization  where  every 
man  has  his  own  personal  deity  and  no  two  perhaps 
the  same,  the  bond  that  unites  man  to  man  is  ex- 


'  Mr.  Catlin,  ubi  sup.  relates  anecdotes  that  illuatrate  the  state  of 
thouglit  and  feeling  in  tlie  state  of  Fetichism.  Much  also  may  be  found 
in  Marco  Polo's  Travels  in  the  Eastern  parts  of  the  World,  London,  1818, 
and  in  Marsden's  Notes  to  that  edition.  The  Early  Voyagers,  likewise, 
are  full  of  facts  that  belong  here. 

*  The  worship  of  evil  beings  is  a  curious  phenomenon  in  human  history. 
The  literature  of  the  subject  is  copious  and  instructive.  Some  famous 
men  think  the  existence  of  the  Devil  cannot  be  found  out  by  the  light  of 
Nature  and  unaided  Reason  ;  others  make  it  a  doctrine  of  natural  reli- 
gion. Some  think  him  incapable  of  Atheism,  though  only  a  spccvlative 
theist  The  doctrine  is  a  disgrace  to  the  Christian  Church,  and  well  fitted 
to  excite  the  disgust  of  thinking  and  pious  men.  But  see  what  may  be 
said  for  the  doctrine  by  Mayer,  Historia  Diaboli,  2d  edition,  1780. 
See  the  literature  in  Wegscheider.  Institutiones.  §  104-5. 


^  FETICHISM.  61 

ceedingly  slight.  Each  man's  hand  is,  in  some 
measure,  against  his  hiother's.  Opposition,  or  un- 
likeness  among  the  gods,  leads  to  hostility  among 
men.  Thus  family  is  arrayed  against  family,  tribe 
against  tribe,  nation  against  nation,  because  the 
peculiar  God  of  the  one  family,  tribe,  or  nation  is 
deemed  hostile  to  all  others.  Therefore  among  cruel 
nations,  whose  Gods  of  course  are  conceived  of  as 
cruel,  the  most  acceptable  sacrifice  to  the  Fetiche  is 
the  blood  of  his  enemies.  A  stranger  whom  acci- 
dent or  design  brings  to  the  devotee  is  a  choice  offer- 
ing. The  Saint  is  a  murderer.  War  is  a  constant 
and  normal  state  of  man,  not  an  exception  as  it 
afterwards  becomes  ;  the  captives  are  sacrificed  as 
a  matter  of  course.  The  energies  of  the  race  are 
devoted  to  destruction ;  not  to  creative  industry.  It 
is  the  business  of  a  man  to  war ;  of  a  woman  to  till 
the  soil.  The  fancied  God  guides  the  deepening 
battle  ;  presides  over  the  butchery,  and  canonizes 
the  bloody  hand.  He  is  the  God  of  Battles,  teaches 
men  to  war,  inspires  them  to  fight. 

It  is,  unfortunately,  but  too  easy  to  find  historical 
verifications  of  this  phase  of  human  nature.  The 
Jews,  in  their  early  and  remarkable  passage  from 
Fetichism  to  Polytheism  and  Monotheism  —  if  we 
may  trust  the  tale  —  resolve  to  exterminate  all  the 
Canaanites,  millions  of  men,  unoffending  and  peace- 
ful, because  the  two  nations  worshiped  different 
Gods,  and  Jehovah,  the  peculiar  deity  of  the  Jews, 
a  jealous  God,  demanded  the  destruction  of  the 
other  nation,  who  did  not  worship  him.     Men,  wo- 


62  FETICHISM. 

men  and  children  must  be  slain. ^  The  Spaniards 
found  the  same  custom  prevailing  at  Mexico,  and 
elsewhere.  In  our  day  it  still  continues  in  the 
South  Sea  Islands,  under  forms  horrible  almost  as 
of  old  in  the  Holy  Land.^ 

But  the  intense  demands  war  makes  on  all  the 
energies  of  man,  help  to  unfold  the  thinking  faculty, 
to  elevate  the  race,  and  thus  indirectly  to  promote 
truer  notions  of  Religion.  Thus  war,  cruel  and 
hideous  monster  as  he  is,  has  yet  rocked  Art  and 
Science  in  his  bloody  arms.  God  makes  the  wrath 
of  man  to  praise  him ; 

"  From  seeming  evil  still  educing  good, 
And  better  thence  again  in  infinite 
Progression." 

As  civilization  goes  forward  in  this  rough  way,  the 
voice  of  humanity  begins  to  speak  more  loudly, 
Morality  is  wedded  to  Religion,  and  a  new  progeny 
is  born  to  bless  the  world.  It  begins  to  be  felt  that 
if  the  captive  consents  to  serve  his  conqueror's  God, 
the  service  will  be  more  acceptable  than  his  death. 
Hence  he  is  spared  ;  still  worships  his  own  deity 
perhaps,  but  confesses  the  superiority  of  the  victo- 
rious God.     The  God  of  the  conquered  party  be- 

*  Human  sacrifice  prevailed  in  many  parts  of  America  when  first  dis- 
covered by  the  Christians,  who  continued  it  in  a  different  form,  not  offer- 
ing to  God  but  Mammon.  See  Bancroft,  History  of  the  United  States, 
Vol.  HI.  p.  2!ir)-7,  for  some  forms  of  this.  The  whole  of  Chap.  XXH. 
is  replete  with  philosophical  and  historical  instruction,  and  one  of  the 
most  valuable  and  brilliant  even  in  that  series  of  shining  pages. 

'■^  On  this  passage  in  human  history,  see  Comte,  Vol.  V.  p  90,  et  seq. 
p.  132,  et  seq.  and  p.  186,  et  seq. 


POLYTHEISM.  63 

comes  a  devil,  or  a  strange  God,  or  a  servant  of  the 
controlling  Deity.  Thus  the  Gibeonites  and  the 
Helots,  who  once  ^^'ould  have  been  sacrificed  to 
the  conquering  God,  become  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water  to  the  Hebrews  and  the  Spartans, 
and  serve  to  develop  the  directly  useful  and  creative 
faculties  of  man.  The  Gods  demand  the  service, 
not  the  life-blood  of  the  stranger  and  captive.  No 
doubt  the  anointed  priesthood  opposed  this  refine- 
ment with  a  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  and  con- 
demned such  as  received  the  blessing  of  men  ready 
to  perish.  But  it  would  not  do.  Samuel  hews 
Agag  in  pieces,  though  Saul  would  have  saved  him; 
but  the  days  of  Samuel  also  are  numbered,  and  the 
theocratic  power  pales  its  ineffectual  ray  before  a 
rising  liiiht. 

n.  Polytheism  is  the  next  stage  in  the  religious 
development  of  mankind.  Here  reflection  begins 
to  predominate  over  sensation.  As  the  Laws  of 
Nature,  the  habits  and  organization  of  animals, 
begin  to  be  understood,  they  cease  to  represent  the 
true  object  of  worship.  No  man  ever  deified  Weight 
and  Solidity.  But  as  men  change  slowly  from  form 
to  form,  and  more  slowly  still  from  the  form  to  the 
substance,  coarse  and  material  Fetichism,  must  be 
idealized  before  it  could  pass  away.  No  doubt 
men,  for  the  sake  of  example,  bowed  to  the  old 
stock  and  stone  when  they  knew  an  idol  was  no- 
thing. It  might  offend  the  weak  to  give  up  the  lie 
all  at  once. 


64  POLYTHEISM. 

Polytheism  is  the  worship  of  many  Gods  without 
the  worship  of  animals.  It  may  be  referred  to  two 
sources,  worship  of  the  Powers  of  material  nature, 
and  of  the  Powers  of  spiritual  nature.  Its  history 
is  that  of  a  conflict  between  the  two.^  In  the 
earliest  epoch  of  Greek  Polytheism,  the  former  pre- 
vails ;  the  latter  at  a  subsequent  period.  The  early 
deities  are  children  of  the  Earth,  the  Sky,  the 
Ocean.  These  objects  themselves  are,  Gods.^  In 
a  word,  the  Saturnian  Gods  of  the  older  mythology 
are  deified  powers  of  nature  :  but  in  the  mythology 
of  the  later  philosophers,  it  is  absolute  spiritual 
power,  that  rules  the  world  from  the  top  of  Olym- 
pus, and  the  subordinate  deities  are  the  spiritual 
faculties  of  man  personified  and  embellished.^  Mat- 
ter, no  longer  worshiped,  is  passive,  powerless,  and 
dishonored.  The  animals  are  driven  off  from  Olym- 
pus. Man  is  idealized  and  worshiped.  The  Supreme 
wears  the  personality  of  men.     Anthropomorphism 


•  In  what  relates  to  this  subject,  I  shall  consider  Polytheism  as  it  ap- 
peared to  the  great  mass  of  its  votaries.  Its  most  obvious  phenomena 
are  the  most  valuable.  Some,  as  Bryant,  take  the  speculations  ol'  natur- 
alists and  make  it  only  a  system  of  Physics  ;  others,  as  Cud  worth,  fol- 
lowing the  refinements  of  later  philosophers,  would  prove  it  to  be  a  system 
of  Monotheism  in  disguise.  But  to  the  mass,  Apollo  was  not  the  Sun, 
nor  the  Beautiful  influence  of  God,  whatsoever  he  might  appear  to  the 
mystic  sage. 

*  Julius  Firmicufi  maintains  that  the  heathen  deities  were  simply  deified 
natural  objects.  De  Errore  prof,  religionarum,  Ch.  I. —  V.  But  Clement 
of  Alexandria,  more  wisely  refers  them  to  seven  distinct  sources.  Cohor- 
tatio  ad  Gentcs,  Opp.  I.  cd.  Potter,  pp.  21,22.  Earth  and  Heaven  are  the 
oldest  Gods  of  Greece. 

^  See  for  example  tiie  contest  of  Eros  and  Anacreon,  Carm.  XIV. 
p.  18, 19,  ed.  Mobius. 


POLYTHEISM.  65 

takes  the  place  of  a  deification  of  nature.  The 
popular  Gods  are  of  the  same  origin  as  their  wor- 
shipers, born,  nursed,  bred,  but  immortal  and  not 
growing  old.^  They  are  married  like  men  and 
women,  and  become  parents.  They  preside  over 
each  department  of  nature,  and  each  province  of 
art.-  Pluto  rules  over  the  abodes  of  the  departed ; 
Neptune  over  the  ocean  ;  Jove  over  the  land  and 
sky.  One  Divinity  wakes  the  olive  and  the  corn, 
another  has  charge  of  the  vine.  One  guides  the 
day  from  his  chariot  witli  golden  wheels.  A  sister 
deity  walks  in  brightness  through  the  nocturnal  sky. 
A  fountain  in  the  shade,  a  brook  leaping  adown  the 
hills,  or  curling  through  the  plains  ;  a  mountain 
walled  with  savage  rocks ;  a  sequestered  vale  fringed 
with  romantic  trees,  —  each  was  the  residence  of  a 
God.  Demons  dwelt  in  dark  caves,  and  shook  the 
woods  at  night  with  hideous  rout,  breaking  even  the 
cedars.  They  sat  on  the  rocks  —  fair  virgins  above 
the  water,  but  hideous  shapes  below  —  to  decoy 
sailors  to  their  destruction.  The  mysterious  sounds 
of  nature,  the  religious  music  of  the  wind  playing 
among  the  pines,  at  eventide,  or  stirring  the  hot 

»  See  Heyne,  Exr.ursus  VIII  in  Iliad,  1.494,  p.  18:).  Hegel,  Philo- 
sophie  der  Rel.  Vol.  II.  p.  96-141.  Pindar,  Nem.  VI.  1,  et  seq.  Olymp. 
XII   7,  et  seq.  &c. 

'  See  Aristotle,  Metaphysica,  Lib.  XI.  §  8,  Opp.  VIII.  p.  233,  et  seq. 
ed.  Bekker,  Oxford,  1837.  In  the  old  Pelasgic  Polytheism,  it  seems  there 
were  no  proper  names  for  the  individual  Gods.  The  general  term  Gods 
was  all.  Hemdotus,  Lib.  II.  ch.  52,  Opp.  I.  p  606,  et  seq  ed.  Baehr. 
Plato  mentions  the  two  classes  of  Gods,  one  derived  from  the  worship  of 
nature,  the  other  from  that  of  man.  Legg.  Lib.  XL  Opp.  VII.  p.  344,  ed. 
Ast.  See  PluUrch  cited  in  Eusebius,  P.  E.  111.  1,  p.  i>7,  ed.  157'J. 
9 


gg  POLYTHEISM. 

palm  tree  at  noon  day,  was  the  melody  of  the  God 
of  sounds.^  A  beautiful  form  of  man  or  woman 
was  a  shrine  of  God.^  The  storms  had  a  deity. 
Witches  rode  the  rack  of  night.  A  God  offended 
roused  nations  to  war,  or  drove  Ulysses  over  many 
lands.  A  pestilence,  drought,  famine,  inundation, 
an  army  of  locusts,  was  the  special  work  of  a  God.^ 


'  See  the  beautiful  lines  of  Wordsworth,  Excursion,  Boston  edition, 
1824,  Book  IV.  p.  159, et  seq.  See  also  Creutzer's  Symbolik  und  Mythol- 
ogie,  third  edition,  Vol.  I.  p.  8-29. 

•■^  See  Herodotus,  V.  47.  The  Greeks  erected  an  altar  on  the  grave  of 
Philippos,  the  most  beautiful  of  the  Greeks,  and  offered  sacrifice.  See 
Wachsmuth,  Antiquities  of  Greece,  Vol.  II.  2,  p.  315,  on  the  general  adora- 
tion of  Beauty  with  the  Greeks,  Hegel  calls  this  worship  the  Religion  of 
Beauty.  Phil,  der  Religion,  Vol.  II.  p.  96,  et  seq.  National  charact'sr 
marks  the  religious  form. 

3  A  disease  was  sometimes  personified  and  worshiped,  as  Fever  at 
Rome.  See  ^lian  Var.  Hist.  XII.  11,  p.  734,  et  seq.  ed.  Gronovius. 
Valerius  Maximus,  XX.  Lib.  II.  Ch.  V.  6,  Vol.  I.  p.  126,  et  seq.  ed. 
Hase.  Temples  were  erected  to  Shame  and  Impudence,  Fear,  Death, 
Laughter  and  Gluttony,  among  the  Heathen,  as  shrines  to  the  Saints 
among  Christians.  Pausanias,  Lib.  IV.  Ch.  XVII.  says,  the  Athenians 
had  a  Temple  for  Mercy.  See,  however,  the  ingenious  remarks  of  M. 
Cousin,  Journal  des  Savans,  March,  1835,  p.  136,  et  seq.  and  Creutzer's 
animadversions  thereon,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  I.  p.  135-6.  In  India,  each 
natuial  object  is  the  seat  of  a  God.  But  in  Greece  the  worship  of  nature 
passed  into  the  higher  form.  See  some  curious  remarks  of  Hermann  on 
the  most  ancient  mythology  of  the  Greeks  in  his  Opuscula,  Vol.  II. 
p.  167.  It  is  a  noticeable  fact  that  some  of  the  old  polytheistic  theogonies 
spoke  of  a  gradual  and  •progressive  development  of  the  Gods  ;  the  creator 
keeps  even  pace  with  the  creation.  The  explanation  of  a  fact  so  singular 
as  the  self-contradictory  opinion  that  the  Infinite  is  not  always  the  same, 
may  be  found  in  the  history  of  human  conceptions  of  God,  for  these  are 
necessarily  progressive.  See  Aristotle,  Metaphysica,  IV.  p.  1091,  et  seq. 
and  Hesiod's  Theogony  everywhere,  and  note  the  progress  of  the  divine 
species  from  Chaos  and  Earth,  to  the  moral  divinities,  Eunomia,  Dike, 
Eirene,  &c.  In  some  of  the  Oriental  theogonies,  the  rule  was  inverted, 
the  first  emanation  was  the  best. 


POLYTHEISM.  67 

No  ship  is  called  by  the  name  of  Glauciis  because 
he  offended  a  deity. ^ 

Arts  also  have  their  patron  divinity.  Phoebus- 
Apollo  inspires  the  Poet  and  Artist ;  the  Muses  — 
Daughters  of  Mercury  and  Jove  —  fire  the  bosom 
from  their  golden  urn  of  truth  ; "  Thor,  Ares, 
Mars,  have  power  in  war ;  a  sober  virgin-goddess 
directs  the  useful  arts  of  life  ;  a  deity  presides  over 
agriculture,  the  labors  of  the  smith,  the  shepherd, 
the  weaver,  and  each  art  in  life.  He  defends  men 
engaged  in  these  concerns.  Every  nation,  city  or 
family  has  its  favorite  God  ;  a  Zeus,  Athena,  Juno, 
Odin,  Baal,  Jehovah,  Osiris,  or  Melkartha,  who  is 
supposed  to  be  partial  to  the  nation  which  is  his 
"  chosen  people."  Now  perhaps  no  nation  ever  be- 
lieved in  many  separate,  independent,  absolute  dei- 
ties. All  the  Gods  are  not  of  equal  might.  One  is 
King  of  all,  the  God  of  Gods,  who  holds  the  others 
with  an  iron  sway.  Sometimes  he  is  the  All- 
Father  ;  sometimes  the  All-Fate,  which,  in  some 
ages,  seems  to  be  made  a  substitute  for  the  one 
true  God.^     Each  nation  trusts  its  own  chief  God 


'  Herodotus,  Lib.  VL  86,  relates  the  beautiful  story  of  Glaucus,  so  full 
of  moral  Irutli.  Compare  with  it,  Zechariah  V.  3-4,  Job  XV.  20,  et  seq. 
XVIII,  et  seq.  wliere  tlie  same  beautiful  and  natural  sentiment  appears. 

-  See  the  strange  pantlieistic  account  of  the  origin  and  liistory  of  Gods 
and  all  things  in  the  Orphic  poems  and  Mythology.  These  have  been 
collected  and  treated  of  with  great  discrimination  by  Lobeck,  Aglaopha- 
inus,  Vol.  I.  p.  473,  et  seq.  See  the  more  summary  account  in  Brandis, 
Geschichte  der  Philosophie,  Vol.  I.  p.  GO,  et  seq. 

'  Men  must  believe  in  somewhat  that  is  Absolute;  if  their  conce|)tion 
of  the  Deity  be  imperfect,  they  unavoidably  retreat  to  a  somewliat  supe- 
rior to  the  Deity.     Thus  for  every  defect  in  the  popular  conception  of 


68  POLYTHEISM. 

is  greater  than  the  Gods  of  all  other  nations,  or,  in 
time  of  war,  seeks  to  seduce  the  hostile  Gods  by 
sacrifice,  promise  of  temples  and  ceremonies,  a  pil- 
grimage or  a  vow.  Thus  the  Romans  invoked  the 
Gods  of  their  enemy  to  come  out  of  the  beleagured 
city,  and  join  with  them,  the  conquerors  of  the 
world.  The  Gods  were  to  be  had  at  a  bargain. 
Jacob  drives  a  trade  with  Elohim ;  the  God  re- 
ceives a  human  service  as  adequate  return  for  his 
own  divine  service.^  The  promise  of  each  is  only 
"  for  value  received." 

In  this  stage  of  religious  development  each  Deity 
does  not  answer  to  the  Idea  of  God,  as  mentioned 
above ;  it  is  not  the  Being  of  infinite  power, 
wisdom  and  love.  Neither  the  Zeus  of  the  Iliad, 
nor  the  Elohim  of  Genesis,  nor  the  Jupiter  of  the 
Pharsalia,  nor  even  the  Jehovah  of  the  Jewish 
Prophets  is  always  this.  A  transient  and  complex 
conception  takes  the  place  of  the  eternal  Idea  of 
God.  Hence  his  limitations  ;  those  of  a  man.  Je- 
hovah is  narrow,  Zeus  is  licentious,  Hermes  will 
lie  and  steal,  Juno  is  a  shrew. 

The  Gods  of  polytheistic  nations  are  in  part 
deilied  men.^     The  actions  of  many  men,  of  differ- 

Zeus,  some  new  power  is  added  to  Fate.  "  It  is  impossible  even  for  God 
to  escape  Fate,"  said  Herodotus.     See  also  Cudworth,  Ch.  I.  §  1-3. 

>  Genesis  XXVIII.  10-12. 

^  TertuUian  De  Anima,  CJi.  33.  See  Meiners,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  I.  p.  290,  et 
seq-  Pindar.  Olymp.  II.  fiS,  et  seq.  ed.  Dissen  and  his  remarks,  Vol.  II. 
p.  36,  et  seq.  This  Anthropomorphism  took  various  forms  in  Greece, 
Egypt  and  India.  In  the  former  it  was  the  elevation  of  a  man  to  the 
Gods  ;  in  the  latter  the  descent  of  a  God  to  man.     This  feature  of  Orien- 


POLYTHEISM.  69 

ent  ages  and  countii(^s,  are  united  into  one  man's 
achievement,  and  we  have  a  Hercules,  or  an  Apollo, 
a  thrice-great  Hermes,  a  Jupiter,  or  an  Odin.  Tlie 
inventors  of  useftd  arts,  as  agriculture,  navigation; 
of  the  plough,  the  loom,  laws,  fire  and  letters,  sub- 
sequently became  Gods.  Great  men,  wise  men, 
good  men,  were  honored  while  living ;  they  are 
deified  when  they  decease.  As  they  judged  or 
governed  the  living  once,  so  now  the  dead.  Their 
actions  are  idealized  ;  the  good  lives  after  them  ; 
their  faults  are  buried.  Statues,  altars,  temples  are 
erected  to  them.  He  who  was  first  honored  as  a 
man,  is  now  worshiped  as  a  God.^  To  these  per- 
sonal deities  are  added  the  attributes  of  the  old  Fe- 
tiches, and  still  more  the  powers  of  nature.  The 
attributes  of  the  moon,  the  sun,  the  lightning,  the 
ocean  or  the  stars  are  transformed  to  a  personal 
being,  conceived  as  a  man.  To  be  made  strong  he 
is  made  monstrous,  with  many  hands,  or  heads. 
In  a  polytheistic  nation,  if  we  trace  the  history  of 
the  poptdar  conception  of  any  God,  that  of  Zeus 
among  the  Grecians,  for  example,  we  see  a  gradual 
advance,  till  their  highest  God  becomes  the  Abso- 
lute. Then  the  others  are  insignificant ;  merely  his 
servants,  like  colonels  and  corporals  in  an  army,  are 
parts  of    his   state    machinery.     The    passage    to 


tal  worship  furnishes  a  fruitful  hint  as  to  the  origin  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Jjicarnation,  and  its  value.  The  doctrine  of  some  Christians  unites  the 
two,  in  the  God-vum. 

'  See   the  origin   of  Idolatry   laid  down   in  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  Ch. 
XIV.  17-19.     Warburton,  Divine  Legation,  Book  V.  §  II.  [111.] 


70  THE  PRIESTHOOD 

Monotheism  is  then  easy.^  The  spiritual  leaders 
of  every  nation,  —  obedient  souls,  into  whom  the- 
spirit  enters  and  makes  them  Sons  of  God  and 
prophets,  —  see  the  meaning  which  the  popular  no- 
tion hides ;  they  expose  what  is  false,  proclaim  the 
eternal  truth,  and  as  their  recompense,  are  stoned, 
exiled  or  slain.  But  the  march  of  mankind  is  over 
the  tombs  of  the  prophets.  The  world  is  saved 
only  by  crucified  redeemers.  The  truth  is  not 
silenced  with  Aristotle  ;  nor  exiled  with  Anaxago- 
ras  ;  nor  slain  with  Socrates.  It  enters  the  soul  of 
its  veriest  foes,  and  their  children  build  up  the 
monuments  of  the  murdered  Seer. 

We  cannot  enter  into  the  feelings  of  a  polythe- 
ist ;  nor  see  how  morality  was  fostered  by  his  re- 
ligion. Ours  would  be  a  similar  puzzle  to  him. 
But  Polytheism  has  played  a  great  part  in  the  de- 
velopment of  mankind  —  yes,  in  the  development 
of  morality  and  religion.^  Its  aim  was  to  "  raise  a 
mortal  to  the  skies  ;  "  to  infinitize  the  finite  ;  to 
bridge  over  the  great  gulf  between  man  and  God. 
Let  us  look  briefly  at  some  of  its  features. 

I.  In  Polytheism  we  find  a  regular  priesthood. 

*  There  are  two  strongly  marked  tendencies  in  all  polytheistic  reli- 
gions—  one  towards  pure  Monotheism,  the  other  to  Pantheism.  See  an 
expression  of  the  latter  in  Orpheus,  ed.  Hermann,  p.  457,  "  Zeus  is  the 
first,  Zeus  the  last,"  &c.  &c.,  cited  also  in  Cudworth,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  I. 
p.  404.  See  Zeno,  in  Diogenes  Laertius.  ed.  Habner.  Lib.  VII.  Ch.  73, 
Vol.  II.  p.  186,  et  seq.  Clemens  Alexand.  Stromat.  VII.  12.  See  also 
Cudworth,  Ch.  IV.  §  17,  ct  seq.,  and  Mosheim's  Annotations. 

*  M.  Cotnte  tiiinks  this  the  period  of  the  greatest  religious  activity! 
The  facts  look  the  other  way. 


UNDER  POLYTHEISM.  71 

This  is  sometimes  exclusive  and  hereditary,  as  in 
Egypt  and  India,  where  it  establishes  castes,  and 
founds  a  theocracy  ;  sometimes  not  hereditary,  but 
open,  free,  as  in  Greece.^  When  "  every  clove  of 
garlic  is  a  God,"  as  in  Fetichism,  each  man  is  his 
own  priest.  But  when  a  troop  of  Fetiches  are 
condensed  into  a  single  God,  and  he  is  invisible,  all 
cannot  have  equal  access  to  him,  for  he  is  not  infi- 
nite, but  partial ;  choses  his  own  place  and  time. 
Some  mediator,  therefore,  must  stand  between  the 
God  and  common  men."  This  was  the  function  of 
the  priest.  Perhaps  his  office  became  hereditary 
at  a  very  early  period,  for  as  we  trace  backward  the 
progress  of  mankind,  the  law  of  inheritance  has  a 
wider  range.  The  priesthood,  separated  from  the 
actual  cares  of  war,  and  of  providing  food  —  the 
two  sole  departments  of  human  activity  in  a  barba- 
rous age  —  have  leisure  to  study  the  will  of  the 
Gods.  Hence  arises  a  learned  class,  who  gradually 
foster  the  higher  concerns  of  mankind.  The  effort 
to  learn  the  will  of  the  Gods,  leads  to  the  study  of 
nature,  and  therefore  to  Science.  The  attempt  to 
please  them  by  images,  ceremonies,  and  the  like, 

'  Even  in  Greece  some  sacerdotal  functions  vested  by  descent  in  cer- 
tain families,  for  example,  in  the  lambides,  Branchides,  t]uinolpides,  As- 
clepiades,  Cerycides,  Clitiades.  See  them  in  Wachsmuth,  Vol.  I.  P.  I. 
p.  152.  See  Grimm,  Deutsche  IMythologie,  Ch.  V.  Meiners,  Vol.  II.  Book 
XII. 

^  See  Montesquieu,  Esprit  des  Lois,  Liv.  XXV.  Ch.  IV.  See  Priestley's 
Comparison  of  the  Institutions  of  Moses  with  those  of  the  Hindoos,  &.c. 
Northumberland  1799,  §  X.  for  the  esteem  in  which  the  sacerdotal 
class  was  held  in  India.  Also  Von  Bohlen  Das  alte  Indien,  Vol.  I.  p.  45, 
et  se(] ,  Vol.  II.  p.  12,  et  seq. 


72  THE  PRIESTHOOD 

leads  to  architecture,  statues,  music,  poetry  and 
hvmns  —  to  the  elegant  arts.  The  priesthood  fos-- 
tered  all  these.  It  took  different  forms  to  suit  the 
genius  of  different  nations  ;  established  castes  and 
founded  the  most  odious  despotism  in  Egypt  and 
the  East,  and  perhaps  the  North,  but  in  Greece  left 
public  opinion  comparatively  free.  In  the  one, 
change  of  opinion  was  violent  and  caused  commo- 
tion, as  the  fabled  Giant  buried  under  iEtna  shakes 
the  island  when  he  turns  ;  in  the  other  it  was  nat- 
ural, easy  as  for  Endymion  to  turn  the  other  cheek 
to  the  Moon.  Taken  in  the  whole,  it  has  been  a 
heavy  rider  on  the  neck  of  the  nations.  Its  virtue 
has  been,  in  a  rude  age,  to  promote  Science,  Art, 
Patriotism,  Piety  to  the  Gods,  and  in  a  certain 
fashion,  love  to  man.  But  its  vice  has  been  to 
grasp  at  the .  throat  of  mankind,  control  their 
thoughts  and  govern  their  life,  and  be  the  Will  of 
the  World.  When  it  has  been  free,  as  in  Greece, 
its  influence  has  been  deep,  silent  and  unseen ; 
blessed  and  beautiful.  But  when  it  is  hereditary 
and  exclusive,  it  preserves  the  form,  ritual  and 
creed  of  barbarous  times  in  the  midst  of  civiliza- 
tion ;  separates  morality  from  religion,  life  from  be- 
lief, good  sense  from  theology ;  demands  horrible 
sacrifices  of  the  body,  or  the  soul ;  and,  like  the 
angry  God  in  the  old  Pelasgic  fable,  chains  for 
eternal  damnation  the  bold  free  spirit  which,  learn- 
ing the  riddle  of  the  world,  brings  down  the  fire  of 
Heaven  to  bless  poor  mortal  men.  It  were  useless 
to  quote  examples  of  this  influence  of  the  priest- 


WAR  IN  POLYTHEISM.  73 

hood.  It  has  been  tlie  burthen  of  Fate  upon  the 
human  race.  Each  age  has  its  Levites ;  instru- 
ments of  cruelty  are  in  their  habitations.  In  many 
nations  their  story  is  a  tale  of  blood ;  the  tragedy 
of  Sin  and  Woe.^ 

II.  In  the  polytheistic  period,  war  is  a  normal 
state  and  almost  constant.  Religion  then  unites 
men  of  the  same  tribe  and  nation  ;  but  severs  one 
people  from  another.  The  Gods  are  hostile,  Jeho- 
vah and  Baal  cannot  agree.  Their  worshipers 
must  bite  and  devour  one  another.  Strangers  are 
sacrificed  in  Tauris  and  Egypt,  and  the  captives  in 
war  put  to  death  at  the  command  of  the  Priest. 
But  war  at  that  period  has  also  a  civilizing  influ- 
ence. It  was  to  the  ancient  world  what  Trade 
is  to  modern  times :  another  form  of  the  same 
selfishness.  It  was  the  chief  method  of  extending 
a  nation's  influence.  The  remnant  of  the  con- 
quered nation  was  added  to  the  victorious  empire ; 
became  its  slaves,  or  tributaries,  and  at  last  shared 
its  civilization,  adding  the  sum  of  its  own  excel- 
lence to  the  moral  treasury  of  its  master.  Con- 
quered Greece  gave  Arts  and  Philosophy  to  Rome; 
the  exiled  Jews  brought  back  from  Babylon  the  great 
doctrine   of   eternal   life.     The    Goths   conquered 

'  See  the  one-sided  view  of  Constant,  wiiich  pervades  his  entire  work 
on  Religion.  See  his  Essay  on  the  "  Progressive  Development  of  Re- 
ligious Ideas,"  in  Ripley's  Philosophical  Miscellanies,  Vol.  II.  p.  2;}2,  et 
seq.  Virgil,  in  his  description  of  the  Elysian  fields,  assigns  the  first  place 
to  Legislators,  the  magnanimous  Heroes,  who  civilized  mankind  ;  the 
next  to  Patriots,  and  the  third  to  Priests.  Aen.  VI.  661,  et  eeq. 
10 


74  WAR  IN  POLYTHEISM. 

Rome,  but  Roman  Christianity  subdues  the  Goths. 
Religion,  allied  with  the  fiercest  animal  passions, 
demanded  war ;  this  led  to  science.  It  was  soon 
seen  that  one  head  which  thinks  is  worth  a  hundred 
hands.  Science  elevates  the  mass  of  men,  they 
perceive  the  folly  of  bloodshed,  and  its  sin.  Thus 
War,  by  a  fatal  necessity,  digs  its  own  grave.  The 
art  of  production  surpasses  the  art  to  destroy.^ 

All  the  wars  of  polytheistic  nations  have  more  or 
less  a  religious  character.  Their  religion,  however, 
favored  less  the  extermination  of  enemies  than  their 
subjugation.  While  Monotheism  —  denying  the 
existence  of  all  deities  but  one  —  when  it  is  super- 
induced upon  a  nation,  in  a  rude  state — like 
Fetichism  itself,  butchers  its  captives,  as  the  Jews, 
the  Mahometans,  and  the  Christians  have  often 
done ;  a  sacrifice  to  the  blood-thirsty  phantom  they 
call  a  God.  In  the  ruder  stages  of  Polytheism, 
war  is  the  principal  occupation  of  man.  The  Mili- 
tary and  the  Priestly  powers,  strength  of  Body  and 
strength  of  Thought,  are  the  two  Scales  of  Society. 
Science  and  Art  are  chiefly  devoted  to  kill  men  and 
honor  the  Gods.  The  same  weapons  which  con- 
quer the  spoil,  sacrifice  it  to  the  Deity.^ 

III.  But  as  Polytheism  leads  men  to  spare  the  life 

'  M.  Montgery,  a  French  Captain,  touchingly  complains  "  that  the  art 
to  destroy,  though  the  easiest  of  all  from  its  very  nature,  is  now  much 
less  advanced  than  the  art  of  production,  in  spite  of  the  superior  difficulty 
of  the  latter."     Quoted  in  Comte,  ubi  supra,  Vol.  V.  p.  167. 

=*  M.  Comte,  Vol.  V.  p.  lG5,et  seq.,  has  some  valuable  remarks  on  this 
stage  of  human  civilization.  See  also  Vice,  Nuova  Scienza.  Bib.  II. 
Cap.  I-IV, 


SLAVERY  IN  POLYTHEISM.  75 

of  the  captive,  so  it  leads  to  a  demand  for  his  ser- 
vice. Slavery,  therefore,  like  war,  comes  unavoid- 
ably from  this  form  of  Religion,  and  the  social  sys- 
tem which  grows  out  of  it.  At  this  day,  under  the 
influence  of  Monotheism,  we  are  filled  with  deep 
horror  at  the  thought  of  a  man  invading  the  person- 
ality of  a  man,  to  make  him  a  thing  — a  slave.  The 
flesh  of  a  Christian  creeps  at  the  thought  of  it. 
But  yet  slavery  was  an  indispensable  adjunct  of 
this  rouHi  form  of  society.  Between  that  Fetich- 
ism  which  bade  a  man  slay  his  captive,  eating  his 
body  and  drinking  his  blood  as  indispensable  ele- 
ments of  his  communion  with  God,  and  that  Poly- 
theism which  only  makes  him  a  slave,  there  is  a 
great  gulf  which  it  required  long  centuries  to  fill 
up  and  pass  over.  Anger  has  given  place  to  Inter- 
est ;  perhaps  to  Mercy.  Without  this  change,  with 
the  advance  of  the  art  to  destroy,  the  human  race 
must  have  perished.  By  means  of  slavery  the  art 
of  production  was  advanced.  The  Gibeonite  and 
the  Helot  must  work  and  not  fight.  Thus  by  forced 
labor,  the  repugnance  against  work  which  is  so 
powerful  among  the  barbarous  and  half-civilized, 
is  overcome  ;  systematic  industry  is  developed  ;  the 
human  race  is  helped  forward  in  this  mysterious 
way.  Both  the  theocratic  and  the  military  caste 
demanded  a  servile  class,  inseparable  from  the 
spirit  of  barbarism,  and  the  worship  of  many  Gods  ; 
which  falls  as  that  spirit  dies  out,  and  the  recogni- 
tion of  one  God,  Father  of  all,  drives  selfishness 
out  of  the  heart.     In  an  age  of  Polytheism,  Slavery 


76  SLAVERY  IN  POLYTHEISM. 

and  War  were  in  harmony  with  the  institutions  of 
society  and  the  spirit  of  the  age.  Murder  and  Can- 
nibalism, two  other  shoots  from  the  same  stock, 
had  enjoyed  their  day.  All  are  revolting  to  the 
spirit  of  Monotheism ;  at  variance  with  its  idea  of 
life ;  uncertain  and  dangerous ;  monstrous  anoma- 
lies full  of  deadly  peril.  The  Priesthood  of  Poly- 
theism —  like  all  castes  based  on  a  lie  —  upheld  the 
system  of  slavery,  which  rested  on  the  same  foun- 
dation with  itself.  The  slavery  of  sacerdotal  gov- 
ernments is  more  oppressive  and  degrading  than 
that  of  a  military  despotism.  It  binds  the  Soul  — 
makes  distinctions  in  the  nature  of  man.  The 
Prophet  would  free  men ;  but  the  Priest  enslaves. 
As  Polytheism  does  its  work,  and  man  develops 
his  nature  higher  than  the  selfish,  the  condition  of 
the  slave  is  made  better.  It  becomes  a  religious 
duty  to  free  the  bondsmen  at  their  master's  death, 
as  formerly  the  priests  had  burned  them  on  his 
funeral  pile,  or  buried  them  alive  in  his  tomb  to  at- 
tend him  in  the  realm  of  shades.^     Just  as  civiliza- 


•  See,  who  will,  the  mingling  of  profound  and  superficial  remarks 
on  this  subject  in  Montesquieu,  ubi  supra,  Liv.  XV.  Grotius,  De  jure 
Belli  ac  Pacis,  Lib.  III.  Ch.  VII.-VIIl.  Selden,  De  jure  naturali,  «fec. 
ed.  1680.  Lib.  I.  Ch.  V.  p.  174,  and  Lib.  VII.  VIII.  XII.  et  al.  We  need 
only  compare  the  popular  opinion  respecting  slavery  among  the  Jews, 
with  that  of  the  Greeks  or  Romans,  in  their  best  days,  to  see  the  influ- 
ence of  Monotheism  and  Polytheism  in  regard  to  this  subject.  See  some 
remarks  on  the  Jewish  slavery  in  Michaelis's  Laws  of  Moses.  Slavery 
in  the  East  has  in  general  been  of  a  much  milder  character  than  in  any 
other  portion  of  the  world.  Wolf  somewhere  says  the  Greeks  received 
this  relic  of  barbarism  from  the  Asiatics.  If  so,  they  made  the  evil 
institution  worse  tlian  they  found  it.  According  to  Burckhardt,  it 
exists  in   a  very  mild  form  among  the  Mahometans,  every   where.    Of 


TEMPORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL  POWER.  77 

tion  advanced  and  the  form  of  Religion  therewith, 
it  was  found  difliciilt  to  preserve  the  institution  of 
ancient  crime,  which  sensuality  and  sin  clung  to 
and  embraced.^ 

IV.  Another  striking  feature  of  polytheistic  influ- 
ence, was  the  union  of  power  over  the  Body,  with 
power  over  the  Soul  ;  the  divine  right  to  prescribe 
actions  and  prohibit  thoughts.  This  is  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  all  theocracies.  The  Priests 
were  the  speculative  class  ;  their  superior  knowl- 
edge was  natural  power ;  superstition  in  the  people 
and  selfishness  in  the  Priest,  converted  that  power 
into  despotic  tyranny.  The  military  were  the  ac- 
tive caste  ;  superior  strength  and  skill  gave  them 
also  a  natural  power.  But  he  who  alone  in  an  age 
of  barbarism  can  foretell  an  eclipse,  or  poison  a  flock 
of  sheep,  can  subdue  an  army  by  these  means.  At 
an  early  stage  of  polytheism,  we  find  the  political 
subject  to  the  priestly  power.  The  latter  holds 
communion  with  the  Gods,  whom  none  dare  disc- 


course  his  remarks  do  not  apply  to  the  Turks,  the  most  cruel  of  Mussel- 
men.  No  code  of  ancient  laws  (to  say  nothing  of  modern  legislation.) 
was  so  humane  as  the  Jewish  in  this  respect. 

*  See  Comte,  ubi  supra,  Vol.V.,  p.  186,  et  seq.  On  this  subject  of  slavery 
in  Polytheistic  nations,  see  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall,  ed.  Paris,  1840, 
Vol.  I.  ch.  n.  p.  37,  et  seq  ,  and  the  valuable  notes  of  Milman  and  Gui- 
zot.  For  the  influence  of  Monotheism  on  this  frightful  evil,  compare 
Schlosser,  Geschichte  der  Alten  Welt.  Vol.  III.  Part  IIL  ch.  IX.  §  2,  et 
al. ;  in  particular  the  story  of  Paulinus.  and  Deo  gratias,  p.  284,  et  seq. 
and  p.  334,  et  seq.  p.  427,  et  seq. ;  and  compare  it  with  the  conduct  of  Cato, 
as  given  by  Plutarch,  Life  of  Cato  the  Censor,  and  Schlosser,  ubi  supra, 
Vol.  II.  Part  II.  p.  189,  et  seq. 


78  TEMPORAL  AND  SPIRITUAL  POWER. 

bey.  Romulus,  .^acus,  Minos,  Moses,  receive  their 
laws  from  God.  To  disobey  them,  therefore,  is  to. 
incur  the  wrath  of  the  powers  that  hold  the  thunder 
and  lightning.  Thus  manners  and  laws,  opinions 
and  actions  are  subject  to  the  same  external  au- 
thority. The  theocratic  governor  controls  the  con- 
science and  the  passions  of  the  people.  Thus  the 
radical  evil,  arising  from  the  confusion  between  the 
Priests  of  different  Gods,  was  partially  removed,  for 
the  spiritual  and  temporal  power  was  lodged  in  the 
same  hand. 

In  some  nations  the  Priesthood  was  inferior  to 
the  political  power,  as  in  Greece.  Here  the 
sacerdotal  class  held  an  inferior  rank,  from  Homer's 
time  to  that  of  Laertius.  The  Genius  of  the  na- 
tion demanded  it ;  accordingly  there  sprang  up  a 
body  of  men,  neither  political,  sacerdotal,  nor  mili- 
tary, the  philosophers.^  They  could  have  found  no 
place  in  any  theocratic  government  but  have  done 
the  world  great  religious  service,  building  "  wiser 
than  they  knew."  It  was  comparatively  easy  for 
Art,  Science,  and  all  the  great  works  of  man,  to  go 
forward  under  such  circumstances.  Hence  comes 
that  wonderful  development  of  mind  in  the  country 
of  Homer,  Socrates,  and  Phidias.  But  in  countries 
where  the  temporal  was  subject  to  the  spiritual 
power,  the  reverse  followed  ;  there  was  no  change 


'  Perhaps  none  of  the  polytheistic  nations  offers  an  instance  of  the 
spiritual  and  temporal  power  existing  in  separate  hands,  when  one  party 
was  entirely  independent  of  the  other.  The  separation  of  the  two  was 
reserved  for  a  different  age,  and  will  be  treated  of  in  its  place. 


WORSHIP  OF    MEN. 


79 


without  a  revolution.  The  character  of  the  nation 
becomes  monotonous ;  science,  literature,  morals, 
cease  to  improve.  When  the  nation  goes  down,  it 
"  falls  like  Lucifer,  never  to  hope  again."  The 
story  of  Samuel  affords  us  an  instance,  among  the 
Jews,  of  the  sacerdotal  class,  resisting,  and  success- 
fully, the  attempt  to  take  away  its  power.  Here  the 
Priest,  finding  there  must  be  a  King,  succeeded  at 
length  in  ])lacing  on  the  throne  a  "  man  after  God's 
own  heart,"  that  is,  one  who  would  sacrifice  as  the 
Priest  allowed.  The  effort  to  separate  the  temporal 
from  the  spiritual  power,  to  disenthrall  mankind 
from  the  tyranny  of  sacerdotal  corporations,  is  one 
of  the  great  battles  for  the  souls  of  the  world.  It 
begins  early,  and  continues  long.  The  contest 
shakes  the  earth  in  its  time. 

V.  Another  trait  of  the  polytheistic  period  is  the 
deification  of  men. ^  Fetichism  makes  gods  of  cattle  ; 
Polytheism  of  men.  This  exaltation  of  men  ex- 
erted great  influence  in  the  early  stage  of  polythe- 
ism, when  it  was  a  real  belief  of  the  people  and 
the  priest,  and  not  a  verbal  form,  as  in  the  decline 
of  the  old  worship.  Stout  hearts  could  look  for- 
ward to  a  wider  sphere  in   the   untrod   world  of 

'  See  Farmer  on  the  Worship  of  human  spirits.  London,  1783. 
Plutarch,  ([sis  and  Osiris,)  denies  that  human  spirits  were  ever  worshiped, 
but  he  is  opposed  by  notorious  facts.  See  Creutzer,  ubi  supra,  p.  137, 
et  seq.  The  deification  of  human  beings,  of  course  implied  a  belief  in 
the  immortality  of  the  human  soul,  and  is  one  of  the  many  standing 
proofs  of  that  belief  See  Heyne's  remarks,  on  Iliad,  XXIII.  64  and 
104.  Vol.  VIII.  p.  368,  378,  et  seq. 


80  WORSHIP  OF  MEN. 

ft 

spirit,  where  they  could  wield  the  sceptre  of  com- 
mand, and  sit  down  with  the  immortal  Gods,  re-- 
newed  in  never  ending  jouth.  The  examples  of 
iEacus,  Minos,  Rhadamanthus,  of  Bacchus  and  Her- 
cules—  mortals  promoted  to  the  Godhead,  by  merit, 
and  not  birth  —  crowned  the  ambition  of  the 
aspiring.  The  kindred  belief  that  the  soul,  dis- 
lodged from  its  "  fleshly  nook,"  still  had  an  influ- 
ence on  the  aflairs  of  men,  and  came,  like  guardian 
spirits,  to  bless  mankind,  was  a  powerful  auxiliary 
in  a  rude  state  of  religious  growth  —  a  notion  which 
has  not  yet  faded  out  of  the  civilized  world. ^  This 
worship  seems  unaccountable  in  our  times;  but  when 
these  men  were  supposed  to  be  descendants  of  the 
Gods,  or  born  miraculously,  and  sustained  by  super- 
human power  ;  or  mediators  between  these  and  the 
human  race ;  when  it  was  believed  they  in  life  had 
possessed  celestial  powers,  or  were  incarnations 
of  some  deity  or  heavenly  spirit,  the  transition  to 
their  Apotheosis  is  less  violent  and  absurd  ;  it  fol- 
lows as  a  natural  result.  The  divine  being  is  more 
glorious  when  he  has  shaken  off  the  robe  of  flesh.^ 
Certain  it  is,  this  belief  was  clung  to  with  aston- 
ishing tenacity,  and,  under  several  forms,  still  re- 
tains its  place  in  the  Christian  church.^ 

'  The  Christians  began  at  an  early  age  to  imitate  this,  as  well  as  other 
parts  of  the  old  polytheistic  system.  Eusebius,  P.  E.  XIII.  II.  Au- 
gustine, De  Civ.  Dei.  VIII.  27. 

''  On  this  subject,  see  Meiners,  ubi  supra,  Vol.  I.  B.  III.  Ch.  I.  and   II. 

3  See  in  Gibbon,  (Decline  and  Fall,  Ch.  XLVII.  §  III.)  the  lament 
of  Serapion  at  the  loss  of  his  concrete  Gods.  But  it  was  only  the  Arian 
notions  that   deprived  him   of  his  finite   God.     Jerome   condemns   the 


MORALS  OF  POLYTHEISM.  81 

The  moral  effect  of  Polytheism,  on  the  whole,  is 
difficult  to  understand.  However,  it  is  safe  to  say 
it  is  greater  tlian  that  of  Fetichism.  The  constant 
evil  of  war  in  public,  and  slavery  in  private  ;  the 
arbitrary  character  assigned  to  the  Gods  ;  the  influ- 
ence of  the  priesthood,  laying  more  stress  on  the 
ritual  and  the  creed  than  on  the  life  ;  the  exceed- 
ing outwardness  of  many  popular  forms  of  worship  ; 
the  constant  separation  made  between  Religion  and 
Morality ;  the  indifference  of  the  priesthood,  in 
Greece,  their  despotism  in  India,  —  do  not  offer  a 
very  favorable  picture  of  the  influence  of  Polytheism 
in  producing  a  beautiful  life.  Yet,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  high  tone  of  morality  which  pervades  the 
literature  of  Greece,  the  reverential  piety  displayed 
by  poets  and  philosophers,  and  still  more  the  un- 
deniable fact  of  characters  in  her  story,  rarely  sur- 
passed in  nobleness  of  aim,  and  loftiness  of  attain^- 
ment,  —  these  things  lead  to  the  opinion  that  the 
moral  influence  of  this  worship,  when  free  from  the 
shackles  of  a  sacerdotal  caste,  has  been  vastly  under- 
rated by  Christian  scholars.^ 


Anthropomorphism  of  the  Polytheists  as  stultissimam  hccrcsin,  but  be- 
lieved tlie  divine  incarnation  in  Jesus.  See,  also,  Prudcntius,  Apotheosis, 
0pp.  I.  p.  430,  et  seq.     London,  1S24. 

'  The  special  influence  of  Polytheism  upon  morals,  differed  with  the 
different  forms  it  assumed.  In  India  it  sometimes  led  to  rigid  asceticism, 
and  lofty  contemplative  quietism  ;  in  Rome,  to  great  public  activity  and 
manly  vigor;  in  Greece,  to  a  gay  abandonment  to  the  natural  emotions  ; 
in  Persia,  to  ascetic  purity  and  formal  devotion.  On  this  subject  see  the 
curious  and  able,  but  one-sided  and  partial  treatise  of  Tholuckon  Moral 
Influence  of  Heathenism,  in  the  American  Biblical  Repository,  Vol.  II. 
He  has  shown  up  the  dark  side  of  heathenism,  but  seems  to  have  no 
11 


82  MORALS  OF  POLYTHEISM. 

To  trace  the  connection  between  the  public  vir- 
tue and  the  popular  theology,  is  a  great  and  difficult- 
matter,  not  to  be  attempted  here.  But  this  fact  is 
plain  ;  that  in  a  rude  state  of  life,  this  connection  is 
slight ;  scarce  perceptible.  The  popular  worship 
expresses  Fear,  Reverence  it  may  be  ;  perhaps  a 
Hope  ;  or  even  Trust.  But  the  services  it  demands 
are  rites  and  offerings,  not  a  divine  life.  As  civili- 
zation is  advanced.  Religion  claims  a  more  reasona- 
ble service,  and  we  find  enlightened  men,  whom 
the  spirit  of  God  made  wise,  demanding  only  a 
divine  life  as  an  offering  to  Him.  Spiritual  men, 
of  the  same  elevation,  see  always  the  same  spiritual 
truth.  We  notice  a  gradual  ascent  in  the  scale  of 
moral  ideas,  from  the  time  of  Homer,  through  Solon, 
Theognis,  the  seven  wise  men,  Pindar,  ^Eschylus, 
Sophocles,  and  the  philosophers  of  their  day.^  The 
philosophers  and  sages  of  Greece  and  Rome  re- 
commend absolute  goodness  as  the  only  perfect 
service  of  God.  With  them  Sin  is  the  disease  of 
the  soul ;  Virtue  its  health ;  a  divine  Life  the  true 
good  of  mankind  ;  Perfection  the  aim.  None  can 
set  forth  this  more  ably.^ 

In  the  higher  stages  of  Polytheism,  man  is  re- 
garded as  fallen.     He  felt  his  alienation  from  his 

true  conception  of  ancient  manners   and   life.     See  Ackermann,   das 
Christliche,  in  Plato,  &c.  Ch.  L     (See  below,  note  2.) 

1  See  the  proof  of  this  in  Brandis,  Geschichte  der  Philosophic,  Vol.  L 
§  24,  25. 

2  See,  on  the  moral  culture  of  the  Greeks,  in  special,  Jacobs,  Ver- 
mischte  Schriften,  Vol.  IIL  p.  374.  He  has  done  justice  to  both  sides  of 
this  difficult  subject. 


MORALS  OF  POLYTHEISM.  83 

Father.  Religion  looks  back  longingly  to  the 
Golden  Age,  when  Gods  dwelt  familiar  with  men. 
It  seeks  to  restore  the  links  broken  out  of  the 
divine  chain.  Hence  its  sacrifices,  and  above  all 
its  mysteries,^  both  of  which  were  often  abused, 
and  made  substitutes  for  holiness,  and  not  symbols 
thereof. 

When  War  is  a  normal  state,  and  Slavery  is  com- 
mon, the  condition  of  one  half  the  human  race  is 
soon  told.  Woman  is  a  tool  or  a  toy.  Her  story 
is  hitherto  the  dark  side  of  the  world.  If  a  dis- 
tinction be  made  between  public  morality,  private 
morality,  and  domestic  morality,  it  may  safely  be 
said  that  Polytheism  did  much  for  the  outward 
regulation  of  the  two  first,  but  little  for  the  last. 
However,  since  there  were  Gods  that  watched  over 
the  affairs  of  the  household,  a  limit  was  theoreti- 
cally set  to  domestic  immorality,  spite  of  the  temp- 
tations which  both  slavery  and  public  opinion  spread 
in  the  way.  When  there  w  ere  Gods,  w  hose  special 
vocation  was  to  guard  the  craftsmen  of  a  certain 
trade,  protect  travellers,  and  defenceless  men  ; 
when  there  were  general,  never-dying  avengers  of 
wrons;,  who  stopped  at  no  goal  but  justice,  —  a 
bound  was  fixed,  in  some  measure,  to  private  op- 

'  Cicero,  De  Legg.  II.  See  on  this  subject  of  the  mysteries  in  gen- 
eral, Lobeck,  Aglaophamus,  sive  de  theologiae  mystics  causis,  &c., 
Pars  III.,  ch.  III.  and  IV.  The  mysteries  seem  sometimes  to  have 
offered  beautiful  symbols  to  aid  man  in  returning  to  union  with  the 
Gods.  Waiburton,  in  spite  of  his  erroneous  views,  has  collected  much 
useful  information  on  this  subject.  Divine  Legation,  Book  II.,  §  IV. 
But  he  sometimes  sees  out  of  him  what  existed  only  in  himself. 


84  MORALS  OF  POLYTHEISM. 

pression.  Man,  however,  was  not  honored  as  man. 
Even  in  Plato's  ideal  State,  the  strong  tyrannized 
over  the  weak.  Human  selfishness  wore  a  bloody 
robe.  Patriotism  was  greater  than  Philanthropy. 
The  popnlar  view  of  sin  and  holiness  was  low.  It 
was  absurd  for  Mercury  to  conduct  men  to  hell  for 
adultery  and  lies.  Heal  thyself,  the  Shade  would 
say.  All  Pagan  antiquity  offers  nothing  akin  to  our 
lives  of  pious  mcn.^  It  is  true,  as  St.  Augustine  has 
well  said,  "  that  matter,  which  is  now  called  the 
Christian  religion,  was  in  existence  among  the  an- 
cients ;  it  has  never  been  wanting,  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  human  race."^  There  is  but  one  Reli- 
gion, and  it  can  never  die  out.  Unquestionably 
there  were  souls  beautifully  pious,  and  devoutly 
moral,  who  felt  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  in  their 
bosom,  and  lived  it  out  in  their  lowly  life.  Still,  it 
must  be  confessed,  the  beneficial  influence  of  the 
public  Religion  of  Polytheists  on  public  and  private 
virtue,  was  sadly  weak.  The  popular  life  is  de- 
termined, in  some  measure,  by  the  popular  concep- 
tion of  God,  and  that  was  low,  and  did  not  cor- 
respond to  the  pure  idea  of  Him  f  still  the  senti- 
ment was  at  its  work. 


1  But  see  in  Plutarch  the  singular  story  of  Thespesius,  his  miraculous 
conversion,  &c.  De  sera  Numinis  Vindicta,  Opp.  IL,  Ch.  XXVIL  p.  5G3, 
et  seq.  ed.  Xylander. 

*  Retract.  I.  13.     See  also  Civ.  Dei.  VIIL  and  Cont.  Acad.  IIL  20. 

'  Plato  is  seldom  surpassed  in  his  conception  of  the  Divine  Being,  by 
any  one  since  his  day.  He  was  mostly  free  from  that  anthropomor- 
phitic  tendency,  which  Christians  have  derived  from  the  Old  Testament. 
See  Rep.  Lib.  VJ. 


MORALS  OF  POLYTHEISM.  85 

But  Religion  was  more  woven  up  with  public 
life  under  this  form  than  under  that  which  sub- 
sequently took  its  place.  A  wedding  or  a  funeral, 
peace  and  war,  seedtime  and  harvest,  had  each  its 
religious  rite.  It  was  the  mother  of  philosophy,  of 
art,  and  science,  though,  like  Saturn  in  the  fable, 
she  sought  to  devour  her  own  cliildrcn,  and  met  a 
similar  and  well-merited  fate.  Classic  Polytheism 
led  to  contentedness  with  the  world  as  it  was,  and 
a  sound  cheerful  enjoyment  of  its  goodness  and 
beauty.  Religion  itself  was  glad  and  beautiful.^ 
But  its  idea  of  life  was  little  higher  than  its  fact. 
However  that  weakish  cant  and  sniveling  senti- 
mentality of  Religion,  which  disgrace  our  day, 
were  unknown  at  that  stage.^  The  popular  faith 
oscillated  between  Unbelief  and  Superstition.  Plato 
wisely  excluded  the  mythological  poets  from  his 
ideal  commonwealth.  The  character  of  the  Gods 
as  it  was  painted  by  the  popular  mythology  of 
Egypt,  Greece  and  India,  like  some  of  the  legends 
of  the  Old  Testament,  served  to  confound  moral 
distinctions  and  encourage  crime.  Polytheists 
themselves  confess  it.^     Yet  a  distinction   seems 

'  See  the  pleasant  remarks  of  Plutarch  on  the  cheerful  character  of 
public  worship,  Opp.  Vol.  11.  p.  1101,  et  seq.  Strabo,  Lib.  X.  Ch.  IH. 
IV.  Opp.  IV.  p.  1G9,  ct  seq.  ed.  Siebenkees  and  Tschucke. 

2  Many  beautiful  traits  of  Polytheism  may  be  seen  in  Plutarch's  Moral 
Works,  especially  the  treatises  on  Superstition.  That  it  is  not  possible 
to  live  well  according  to  Epicurus ;  of  Isis  and  Osiris ;  of  the  tardy 
vengeance  of  God,  see  the  English  version,  Lond.  ICDl,  4  Vols. 
8vo. 

^  Xenophanes,  a  contemporary  of  Pythagoras,  censures  Homer  and 
Hesiod  for  their  narratives  of  the  Gods,  imputing  to  them  what  it  was 


86  MORALS  OF  POLYTHEISM. 

often  to  have  been  made  between  the  private  and 
the  official  character  of  the  deities.  There  was  no 
devil  nor  pandemonium  in  ancient  Polytheism  as 
in  the  modern  Church.  Antiquity  has  no  such  dis- 
grace to  bear.  Perhaps  the  poetic  fictions  about 
the  Gods  were  regarded  always  as  fictions,  and  no 
more.  Still  this  influence  must  have  been  per- 
nicious.^ It  would  seem,  at  first  glance,  that  only 
strong  intellectual  insight,  or  great  moral  purity,  or 
a  happy  combination  of  external  circumstances 
could  free  man  from  the  evil.  However,  in  form- 
ing the  morals  of  a  people,  it  is  not  so  much  the 
doctrine  that  penetrates  and  moves  the  nation's 
soul,  as  it  is  the  feeling  of  that  sublimity  which  re- 
sides only  in  God,  and  of  that  enchanting  loveliness 
which  alone  belongs  to  what  is  filled  with  God. 
Isocrates  well .  called  the  mythological  tales  blas- 
phemies against  the  Gods.  Aristophanes  exposes 
in  public  the  absurdities  which  were  honored  in  the 
recesses  of  the  temples.  The  priesthood  in  Greece 
had  no  armor  of  offiince  against  ridicule.^  But 
goodness  never  dies  out  of  man's  heart. 

shameful  for  a  man  to  think  of.  See  Karsten,  Phil.  vett.  Reliquse,  Vol. 
I.  p.  43,  et  seq.  See  Plato,  Repub.  IL  p.  377.  Pindar,  Oljmp.  I.  28. 
But  no  religion  was  ever  designed  to  favor  impurity,  even  when  it  allows 
it  in  the  Gods.  See  the  fine  remarks  of  Seneca  De  Vita  beata,  Ch. 
XXVL  §  5-C.  Even  the  Gods  were  subject  to  the  eternal  laws.  Fate 
punished  Zeus  for  each  offence.  He  smarted  at  home  for  his  infidelity 
abroad. 

»  See  the  classic  passages  in  Aristophanes,  Clouds.  1065,  et  seq. 

"  It  still  remains  unexplained  how  the  Athenians,  on  a  religious  fes- 
tival, could  attend  the  exhibitions  of  the  comic  drama,  which  exposed  the 
popular  mythology  to  ridicule,  as  it  is  done  in  the  Birds  of  Aristophanes, 
to  mention  a  single  example,  and  still  continue  the  popular  worship. 


DUALISM.  •  87 

Mankind  pass  slowly  from  stage  to  stage 

"  Slowly  as  spreads  the  green  of  earth 
O'er  tlie  receding  ocean's  bed, 
Dim  as  the  distant  stars  come  fortli, 
Uncertain  as  a  vision  lied," 

seems  the  gradual  progress  of  the  race.  But  in  the 
midst  of  the  absurd  doctrines  of  the  priests,  and 
the  immoral  talcs  wherewith  mistaken  poets  sought 
to  adorn  their  conception  of  God,  pure  hearts  beat, 
and  lofty  minds  rose  above  the  grovelling  ideas  of 
the  temple  and  the  market-place.  The  people  who 
know  not  the  law,  are  often  better  off  than  the 
sage  or  the  soothsayer,  for  they  know  only  what  it 
is  needed  to  know.  "  He  is  oft  the  w'isest  man  that 
is  not  wise  at  all."  Religion  lies  so  close  to  man, 
that  a  pure  heart  and  mind,  free  from  prejudice, 
see  its  truths,  its  duties,  and  its  hopes.  But  before 
mankind  passes  from  Fetichism  to  pure  Monothe- 
ism, at  a  certain  stage  of  religious  progress,  there 
are  two  Subordinate  forms  of  religious  speculation, 
which  claim  the  attention  of  the  race,  namely, 
Dualism  and  Pantheism.  The  one  is  the  highest 
form  of  Polytheism  ;  the  other  a  degenerate  ex- 
pression of  Monotheism,  and  both  together  form 
the  logical  tie  betw  cen  the  two. 

Dualism  is  the  deification  of  two  principles,  the 
Absolute  Good,  and  the  greatest  Evil.  The  origin 
of  this  form  of  religious  speculation  has  been 
already  hinted  at.     Philosophically  stated,  it  is  the 


88  -  DUALISM. 

recognition  of  two  absolute  beings,  the  one  Su- 
preme Good,  the  other  Supreme  Evil.  But  this  in- 
volves a  contradiction ;  for  if  the  Good  is  abso- 
lute, Evil  is  not,  and  the  reverse.  Another  form, 
therefore,  was  invented.  The  Good  Being  was 
absolute  and  infinite  ;  the  Evil  Principle  was  origi- 
nally good,  but  did  not  keep  his  first  estate.  Here 
also  was  another  difficulty ;  an  independent  and 
divine  being  cannot  be  mutable  and  frail,  therefore 
the  evil  principle  must  of  necessity  be  a  dependent 
creature,  and  not  divine  in  the  proper  sense.  So  a 
third  form  takes  place,  in  which  it  is  supposed  that 
both  the  Good  and  the  Evil  are  emanations  from 
one  Absolute  Being,  that  Evil  is  only  negative,  and 
will  at  last  end  ;  that  all  wicked,  as  all  good  princi- 
ples are  subject  to  the  Infinite  God.  At  this  point 
Dualism  coalesces  with  the  doctrine  of  one  God, 
and  dies  its  death.  This  system  of  Dualism,  in  its 
various  forms,  has  extended  widely.  It  seems  to 
have  been  most  fully  developed  in  Persia.  It  came 
early  into  the  Christian  church,  and  still  retains  its 
hold  throughout  all  Christendom,  though  it  is  fast 
dying  away  before  the  advance  of  Reason  and 
Faith.i 

•  The  doctrine  of  two  principles  is  older  than  the  time  of  Zoroaster. 
Hyde,  Hist.  Religionis  vet.  Persarum.  Ch.  IX.  and  XX.  XXII.  Bayle's 
Dictionary,  article  Zoroaster,  Vol.  V.  p.  G3G.  See  also  Cudworth,  Ch. 
IV.  §  13,  p.  2S9,  et  seq.,  and  Mosheim's  Notes,  Vol.  I.  p.  320,  et  seq. 
Rhode,  Heilige  Sage  der  Zendvolks,  B.  II.  Ch.  IX.  X.  XII.  Brucker,  His- 
toria  Philosophise,  Vol.  I.  p.  176,  et  seq.  Plutarch  was  a  Dualist  though 
in  a  modified  sense.  See  his  Isis  and  Osiris,  and  Psychogonia.  Marcion, 
among  the  early  Christians,  was  accused  of  this  belief,  and  indeed  the 
e.vistence  of  a  devil  is  still  believed  by  most  Christian  divines,  to  be  second 


PANTHEISM.  89 

Pantheism  has,  perhaps,  never  been  altogether 
a  stranger  to  the  world.  It  makes  all  things  God, 
and  God  all  things.  Tiiis  view  seems  at  first  con- 
genial to  a  poetic  and  religious  mind.  If  the  world 
be  regarded  as  a  collection  of  powers,  —  the  awful 
force  of  the  storm,  of  the  thunder,  the  earthquake  ; 
the  huge  magnificence  of  the  ocean,  in  its  slumber 
or  its  wrath  ;  the  sublimity  of  the  ever-during  hills  ; 
the  rocks,  which  resist  all  but  the  unseen  hand  of 
time  ;  these  might  lead  to  the  thought  that  they 
were  God.  If  men  looked  at  the  order,  fitness, 
beauty,  love,  everywhere  apparent  in  nature,  the 
impression  is  confirmed.  The  All  of  things  ap- 
pears so  beautiful  to  the  comprehensive  eye,  that 
we  almost  think  it  is  its  own  Cause  and  Creator. 
The  animals  find  their  support  and  their  pleasure  ; 
the  painted  leopard  and  the  snowy  swan,  each  liv- 
ing by  its  own  law  ;  the  bird  of  passage  that  pur- 
sues, from  zone  to  zone,  its  unmarked  path  ;  the 
summer  warbler  which  sings  out  its  melodious  ex- 
istence in  the  woodbine  ;  the  flowers  that  come 
unasked,  charming  the  youthful  year  ;  the  golden 
fruit  maturing  in  its  wilderness  of  green ;  the  dew 
and  the  rainbow  ;  the  frost-flake  and  the  mountain 
snow ;  the  glories  that  wait  upon  the  morning,  or 

only  in  importance  to  the  belief  of  a  God  ;  at  the  very  least  a  scriptural 
doctrine,  and  of  great  value.  See  a  curious  book  of  Mayer,  (Historia 
Diaboli)  who  thinks  it  a  matter  of  divine  revelation.  See  also  the  inge- 
niou-;  remarks  of  Professor  Woods,  in  his  translation  of  Knapp's  Theology, 
New  York,  18:51,  Vol.  I.  et  seq.  §  G2-6G.  See  the  early  forms  of  Dual- 
ism among  the  Christians,  in  Bcausobre  Histoire  de  Manichee  et  du  Man- 
cheieme,  2  Vols.  4to. 
12 


90  PANTHEISM. 

sing  the  sun  to  his  ambrosial  rest ;  the  pomp  of  the 
sun  at  noon,  amid  the  clouds  of  a  June  day;  the 
awful  pomp  of  nigl>t,  when  all  the  stars  with  a 
serene  step  come  out,  and  tread  their  round,  and 
seem  to  watch  in  blest  tranquillity  about  the  slum- 
bering world  ;  the  moon  waning  and  waxing,  walk- 
ing in  beauty  through  the  night;  —  daily  the  water 
is  rough  whh  the  winds  ;  they  come  or  abide  at  no 
man's  bidding,  and  roll  the  yellow  corn,  or  wake 
religious  music  at  night-fall  in  the  pines  ;  these 
things  are  all  so  fair,  so  wondrous,  so  wrapt  in 
mystery,  it  is  no  marvel  that  men  say,  This  is  di- 
vine. Yes,  the  All  is  God.  He  is  the  light  of  the 
morning,  the  beauty  of  the  noon,  and  the  strength 
of  the  sun.  The  little  grass  grows  by  his  pres- 
ence. He  preserveth  the  cedars.  The  stars  are 
serene  because  he  is  in  them.  The  lilies  are  redo- 
lent of  God.  He  is  the  One  ;  the  All.  God  is  the 
mind  of  man.  The  soul  of  all ;  more  moving  than 
motion  ;  more  stable  than  rest ;  fairer  than  beauty, 
and  stronger  than  strength.  The  power  of  nature  is 
God.  The  universe,  broad  and  deep  and  high,  a 
handful  of  dust,  which  God  enchants.  He  is  the 
mysterious  magic  that  possesses  the  world.  Yes, 
he  is  the  All  ;  the  Reality  of  all  phenomena. 

But  an  old  writer  thus  pleasantly  rebukes  this 
conclusion,  "  Surely,  vain  are  all  men  by  nature, 
who  are  ignorant  of  God,  and  could  not  out  of  the 
good  things  that  are  seen,  know  him  that  is  . .  .  but 
deemed  either  Fire,  or  Wind,  or  the  Swift  Air,  or 
the  Circle  of  the  Stars,  or  the  violent  Water,  or  the 


MATERIAL  PANTHEISM.  91 

Lights  of  Heaven,  to  be  the  Gods,  which  govern 
the  world.  With  whose  beauty  if  \hvy  being  de- 
lighted took  them  to  be  Gods ;  let  them  know  how 
much  better  the  Lord  of  them  is,  for  the  first  Author 
of  Beauty  hath  created  them."^ 

To  view  the  subject  in  a  philosophical  and  ab- 
stract way.  Pantheism  is  the  worship  of  All  as  God. 
He  is  the  One  and  All ;  not  conceived  as  distinct 
from  the  Universe,  nor  independent  of  it.  It  is 
said  to  have  prevailed  widely  in  ancient  times,  and, 
if  we  may  believe  what  is  reported,  it  has  not  ended 
with  Spinoza.  It  may  be  divided  into  two  forms, 
Material  Pantheism,  sometimes  called  Hylozoism, 
and  Spiritual  Pantheism,  or  Psycho  Zoism.  Ma- 
terial Pantheism  affirms  the  existence  of  matter, 
but  denies  the  existence  of  spirit,  or  any  thing  be- 
sides matter.     Creation   is  not  possible  ;  the  Phe- 


'  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  Ch.  XIII.  l,etseq.  At  the  present  day  Pantheism 
seems  to  be  tlie  bugbear  of  some  excellent  persons.  They  see  it  every- 
where except  on  the  dark  walls  of  ibeir  own  churches.  The  disciples  of 
Locke  find  it  in  all  schools  of  philosophy  but  the  Sensual ;  the  followers 
of  Calvm  see  it  in  the  liberal  churches.  It  has  become  dangerous  to  say 
"  God  is  Spirit  ."a  definite  God,  whose  personality  we  understand,  is  the 
orthodox  article  M.  Maret,  in  his  Essai  sur  le  Pantheisme  dans  lea 
Societes  Modernes,  Paris,  1840, 1  vol.  bvo,  finds  it  the  natural  result  of 
Protestantisii),  and  places  before  us  the  pleasant  alternatives,  cither  the 
Catholic  Church  or  Pantheism.  Preface,  p.  xv.  et  al.  The  rationalism 
of  the  nineteenth  century  must  end  in  skepticism,  or  leap  over  to  Pan- 
theism. According  to  ium  all  the  philosophers  of  the  Spiritual  School 
in  our  day  are  Pantheists.  Formerly  Divines  condemned  Philosophy 
because  it  had  too  Utile  of  God  ;  now  because  it  has  too  much.  It  would 
seem  difiicult  to  get  the  orthodox  medium  ;  too  much  and  too  little  are 
found  equally  dangerous.  See  the  pleasant  remarks  of  Hegel  on  this 
charge  of  Pantheism,  Encyclopadie  der  philosoph.  Wissenschaften,  &c., 
third  edition,  §  573. 


92  SPIRITUAL  PANTHEISM. 

nomena  of  nature  and  life  are  not  the  result  of  a 
"  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms,"  as  in  Atheism,  but  - 
of  Laws  in  nature  itself.  Matter  is  in  a  constant 
flux ;  but  it  changes  only  by  laws  which  are  them- 
selves immutable.  Of  course  this  does  not  admit 
God  as  the  Absolute  or  Infinite,  but  the  sum  total 
of  material  things.  He  is  limited  both  to  the  ex- 
tension and  the  qualities  of  matter.  This  seems  to 
have  been  the  Pantheism  of  Strato  of  Lampsacus, 
of  Democritus,  perhaps  of  Hippocrates,  and  as 
some  think,  though  erroneously,  of  Xenophanes, 
Parmenides,  and,  in  general,  of  the  Eleatic  Philoso- 
phers in  Greece,^  and  of  many  others  whose  ten- 
dency is  more  spiritual.^  Its  philosophic  form  is  the 
last  result  of  an  attempt  to  form  an  adequate  Con- 
ception of  God.  It  has  sometimes  been  called 
Kosmo-theism,  (World-Divinity,)  but  it  gives  us  a 
world  without  a  God. 

Spiritual  Pantheism  affirms  the  existence  of 
Spirit,  and  sometimes,  either  expressly,  or  by  im- 
plication, denies  the  existence  of  matter.  This 
makes  all  Spirit  God  ;  always  the  same,  but  ever 
unfolding  into  new  forms,  and  therefore  a  perpetual 

'  See  Karsten,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  I.  and  II.  See  the  opinions  of  these  men 
ably  summed  up  by  Ritter,  Geschichte  der  Philosophie,  Vol.  1.  B.  V. 
and  Brandis,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  I.  §  G6-72.  Cud  worth  has  many  fine  obser- 
vations on  this  sort  of  Pantheism,  Vol.  I.  Ch.  IV.  §  15-26,  and  else- 
where. He  denies  that  this  school  make  the  deity  corporeal,  and  charges 
this  upon  others.     See  Ch.  III. 

'  See  Jasche,  Der  Pantheismus,  <fec.  Vols.  II  and  III.  passim,  and  the 
histories  of  Philosophy.  If  a  man  is  curious  to  detect  a  pantheistic  ten- 
dency he  will  find  it  in  the  Soul-of-the-uwrld,  among  the  ancients,  in  the 
Plastic  nature  of  Cudworth,or  the  llijlarchic  -principle  of  Henry  More. 


SPIRITUAL  PANTHEISM.  93 

Becoming ;  God  is  the  absolute  substance,  with 
these  two  attributes  of  thought  and  extension.  He 
is  self-conscious  in  man,  without  self-consciousness 
in  animals.  Before  the  creation  of  man  he  was  not 
sf //-conscious.  Ail  beside  God  is  devoid  of  Sub- 
stantiality. It  IS  not  but  only  appears  ;  its  being 
is  its  being  seen.  This  is  Psycho-theism  (Soul-Di- 
vinity.) It  gives  us  a  God  without  a  World,  and 
He  is  the  only  cause  that  exists,  the  Sum-total  of 
Spirit.  This  was  the  Pantheism  of  Spinoza  and 
some  others.  It  lies  at  the  bottom  of  many  mys- 
tical discourses,  and  appears,  more  or  less,  in  most 
of  the  pious  and  spiritual  writers  of  the  middle 
ages,  who  confound  the  divine  Being  with  their 
own  personality,  and  yet  find  some  support  for  their 
doctrines  in  the  language,  more  or  less  figurative,  of 
the  New  Testament. 

This  system  appears  more  or  less,  in  the  writings 
of  John  the  Evangelist,  in  Dionysius  the  Areopa- 
gite,  and  the  many  authors  who  have  drawn  from 
him.  It  tinges  in  some  measure  the  spiritual  phi- 
losophy of  the   present  day.^     But  the  charge  of 

'  See  the  curious  forms  this  assumes  in  Theologia  Mystica  .  . .  specula- 
tiva  . .  .  et  afFectiva,  per  Henric.  Harph,  etc.,  Colon,  1538.  Jasche  and 
Maret  find  it  in  all  the  modern  spiritual  philosophy.  Indeed  the  two 
rocks  that  threaten  thoolonry  seem  to  be  a  Theosophy  which  resolves  all 
into  God,  and  Anthropomorphism,  which  in  fact  denies  the  Infinite.  This 
mystical  tendency,  popularly  denominated  Pantheism,  appears  in  the 
ancient  reliirions  of  the  East;  it  enters  largely  into  the  doctrine  of  the 
Sufis,  a  Mahometan  sect.  See  Tholuck  Blathensamlung  aus  der  Mor- 
genlandischen  Mystik,  p.  33,  et  seq  and  passim.  Von-Hammer  also,  in 
his  Geschichte  der  schonen  Kedekunste  Pcrsens,  ^c.  p.  340,  et  seq  347, 
et  seq.  et  al.  gives  extracts  from  these  Oriental  speculators  who  are  charged 
with  Pantheism. 


94  MONOTHEISM. 

Pantheism  is  very  vague,  and  is  usually  urged  most 
by  such  as  know  least  of  its  meaning.  He  who 
conceives  of  God,  as  the  immanent  cause  of  all 
things,  as  infinitely  present,  and  infinitely  active, 
with  no  limitations,  is  sure  to  be  called  a  Pantheist 
in  these  days,  as  he  would  have  passed  for  an 
Atheist  two  cencuries  ago.  Some  who  have  been 
called  by  this  easy  but  obnoxious  name,  both  in 
ancient  and  modern  times,  have  been  philosophical 
defenders  of  the  doctrine  of  one  God,  but  have 
given  him  the  historical  form  neither  of  Brahma  nor 
Jehovah.^ 

III.  Monotheism  is  the  worship  of  one  Supreme 
God.  It  may  admit  numerous  divine  beings  supe- 
rior to  man,  yet  beneath  the  Supreme  Divinity,  as 
the  Jews,  the  Mahometans,  and  the  Christians 
have  done  ;  or  it  may  deny  these  subsidiary  beings, 
as  some  philosophers  have  taught.  The  Idea  of 
God,  which  legitimately  belongs  to  Monotheism,  is 
that  of  a  being  infinitely  powerful,  wise,  and  good. 
He  may,  however,  be  supposed  to  manifest  himself 


'  The  writings  of  Spinoza  have  hitherto  been  supposed  to  contain  the 
most  pernicious  form  of  Pantheism  ;  but  of  late,  the  poison  has  been 
delected  also  in  the  works  of  Schleiermaoher,  Fichte,  Schelling,  Hegel, 
Cousin,  not  to  mention  others  of  less  note.  Pantheism  is  a  word  of  con- 
venient ambiguity,  and  serves  as  well  to  express  the  theological  odium  as 
the  more  ancient  word  Atheism,  which  has  been  deemed,  by  some,  as 
synonymous  with  Philosophy.  See  the  recent  controversial  writings  of 
Mr.  Norton  and  Mr.  Ripley,  respecting  the  Pantheism  of  Spinoza  and 
Schleiermaoher.  It  has  been  well  said,  the  question  between  the  alleged 
Pantheist  and  the  pure  Theist,  is  simply  this  :  Is  God  the  immanent 
cause  of  the  World,  or  is  he  not  ? 


MONOTHEISM.  95 

in  one  form  only,  as  the  Jehovah  of  the  Hebrews, 
and  the  AHah  of  the  Mahometans  ;  in  three  forms, 
as  tlie  Triune  God  of  the  Christians  ;  or  in  all 
forms,  as  the  Pan  and  Brahma  of  the  Greek  and 
Indian  ;  for  it  is  indifferent  whether  we  ascribe  no 
form  or  all  forms  to  the  Infinite. 

Since  the  form  of  Monotheism  prevails  at  this 
day,  little  need  be  said  to  portray  its  most  impor- 
tant features.  It  annihilates  all  distinction  of  na- 
tions, tribes,  and  men.  There  is  one  God  for  all 
mankind.  He  has  no  favorites,  but  is  the  equal 
Father  of  them  all.  War  and  Slavery  are  repug- 
nant to  its  Spirit,  for  men  are  brothers.  There  is 
no  envy,  strife,  or  confusion  among  the  Gods,  to 
justify  hostility  among  men.  He  hears  equally  the 
prayer  of  all,  and  gives  them  infinite  good  at  last. 
No  priesthood  is  needed  to  serve  Him.  Under 
Fetichism  every  man  could  have  access  to  his  God, 
for  divine  symbols  were  more  numerous  than  men  ; 
miracles  ^^ere  performed  every  day ;  inspiration 
was  common,  but  of  little  value  ;  the  favor  of  the 
Gods  was  a  wonderful  and  miraculous  command 
over  nature.  Under  Polytheism,  only  a  chosen  few 
had  direct  access  to  God  ;  an  appointed  Priesthood  ; 
a  sacerdotal  caste.  They  stood  between  man  and 
the  Gods.  Divine  symbols  became  more  rare.  In- 
spiration was  not  usual ;  a  miracle  was  a  most  un- 
common thing  ;  the  favorites  of  heaven  were  child- 
ren born  of  the  Gods ;  admitted  to  intercourse  with 
them,  or  enabled  by  them  to  do  wonderful  works. 
Now  Monotheism  would  restore  inspiration  to  all. 


96  MONOTHEISM. 

By  representing  God  as  Spiritual  and  Omnipresent, 
it  brings  him  within  every  man's  reach  ;  by  making 
Him  infinitely  perfect,  it  shows  his  Wisdom,  Love, 
and  Will  always  the  same.  Therefore,  it  anni- 
hilates favoritism  and  all  capricious  miracles.  In- 
spiration, like  the  sun-light,  awaits  all  who  will 
accept  its  conditions.  All  are  Sons  of  God  ;  they 
only  are  his  favored  ones  who  serve  him  best.  No 
day,  nor  spot,  nor  deed,  is  exclusively  sacred  ;  but 
all  time,  and  each  place,  and  every  noble  act.  The 
created  All  is  a  Symbol  of  God. 

But  here  also  human  perversity  and  ignorance  have 
done  their  work  ;  have  attempted  to  lessen  the  sym- 
bols of  the  Deity  ;  to  make  him  of  difficult  access  ; 
to  bar  up  the  fountain  of  Truth  and  source  of  Light 
still  more  than  under  Polytheism,  by  the  establish- 
ment of  places  and  times,  of  rituals  and  creeds  ; 
by  the  appointment  of  exclusive  priests  to  mediate, 
where  no  mediator  is  needed  or  possible  ;  by  the 
notion  that  God  is  capricious,  revengeful,  uncertain, 
partial  to  individuals  or  nations  ;  by  taking  a  few 
doctrines  and  insisting  on  exclusive  belief;  by  se- 
lecting a  few  from  the  many  alleged  miracles,  in- 
sisting that  these,  and  these  alone  shall  be  accepted, 
and  thus  making  the  religious  duty  of  man  arbitrary 
and  almost  contemptible.  Still,  however,  no  human 
ignorance,  no  perversity,  no  pride  of  priest  or  king, 
can  long  prevent  this  doctrine  from  doing  its  vast 
and  beautiful  work.  It  struggles  mightily  with  the 
Sin  and  Superstition  of  the  world,  and  at  last  will 
overcome  them.  ~ 


MONOTHEISM.  97 

The  history  of  this  doctrine  is  instructive.  It 
was  said  above  there  were  three  elements  to  be 
considered  in  tliis  matter,  namely,  the  Sentiment 
of  God ;  the  Idea  of  God  ;  and  the  Conception  of 
God.  The  Sentiment  is  vague  and  mysterious,  but 
always  the  same  thini:;  in  kind,  only  felt  more  or 
less  strongly,  and  with  more  or  less  admixture  of 
foreign  elements.  The  Idea  is  always  the  same  in 
itself,  as  it  is  implied  and  writ  in  man's  constitu- 
tion ;  but  is  seen  with  more  or  less  of  a  distinct 
consciousness.  Both  of  these  lead  to  Unity;  to 
Monotheism,  and  accordingly,  in  the  prayers  and 
hymns,  the  festivals  and  fasts  of  Fetichists  and 
Polytheisls  we  find  often  as  clear  and  definite  inti- 
mations of  Monotheism,  as  in  the  devotional  writ- 
ings of  professed  Monotheists.  In  this  sense  the 
doctrine  is  old  as  the  human  race,  and  has  never 
been  lost  sight  of.  This  is  so  j)lain  it  requires  no 
proof.  But  the  Conception  of  God,  which  men 
superadd  to  the  Sentiment  and  Idea  of  Him,  is 
continually  clianging  with  the  advance  of  the  world, 
of  the  nation,  or  the  man.  We  can  trace  its  his- 
torical development  in  the  writings  of  Priests,  and 
Philosophers,  and  Poets,  though  it  is  impossible  to 
say  when  and  where  it  was  first  taught  w^ith  distinct 
philosophical  consciousness,  that  there  is  one  God  ; 
one  only.  The  liistory  of  this  subject  demands  a 
treatise  by  itself.'     This,  however,  is  certain,  that 


'  Meiners,  in  his  work,    Historia  Doctrinae  de  vcro  Deo,  &c,,  1  vol. 
12mo,  1780,   (which,  though  celebrated,  is  a  passionate  and  one-sided 
13 


98  MONOTHEISM  OF  THE  JEWS. 

we  find  signs  and  proofs  of  its  existence  among  the 
earliest  poets  and  philosophers  of  Greece  ;  in  the- 
dim  remnants  of  Egyptian  splendor  ;  in  the  uncer- 
tain records  of  the  East ;  in  the  spontaneous  effu- 
sions of  savage  hearts,  and  in  the  most  ancient 
writings  of  the  Jews.  The  latter  have  produced 
such  an  influence  on  the  world,  that  their  doctrine 
requires  a  few  words  on  this  point. 

The  Deity  was  conceived  of  by  the  Hebrews 
as  entirely  separate  from  nature  ;  this  distinguishes 
Judaism  from  all  forms  which  had  a  pantheistic  ten- 
dency, and  which  deified  matter  or  men.  He  was 
the  primitive  ground  and  cause  of  all.  But  the  Jew- 
ish Religion  did  not  with  logical  consistency,  deny 
the  existence  of  other  Gods,  inferior  to  the  highest. 
Here  we  must  consider  the  doctrine  of  the  Jewish 
hooks,  and  that  of  the  Jewish  people.     In  the  first 


book,  altogether  unworthy  of  the  subject,  and  "  behind  the  times  "  of  its 
composition.)  maintains  that  the  Heathens  knew  nothing  of  the  one  God 
till  about  3554  years  after  the  creation  of  the  world,  when  Anaxagoras 
helped  them  to  this  doctrine.  See,  on  the  other  hand,  the  broad  and 
philosophical  views  of  Cudworth,  Ch.  IV.  passim,  who,  however,  seems 
to  push  his  hypothesis  too  far  sometimes.  A  history  of  Monotheism  is 
still  to  be  desired,  though  Tenneman,  Ritter,  Brandis,  and  even  Brucker, 
have  collected  many  facts,  and  formed  valuable  contributions  to  such  a 
work.  MUnscher  has  collected  valuable  passages  from  the  Fathers,  re- 
lating to  the  history  of  the  doctrine  among  the  Christians,  and  their  con- 
troversies with  the  Heathen.  Lehrbuch  der  Christlichen  Dogmenge- 
Bchichte,  3d  ed.  by  Von  Coin,  Vol.  I.  Ch.  IV.  §  53,  et  seq.  But  Warbur- 
ton,  who  wrote  like  an  attorney,  gives  the  most  erroneous  judgments 
upon  the  ancient  heathen  doctrine  respecting  the  unity  of  God.  See  the 
temperate  remarks  of  Mosheim,  De  Rebus  ante  Constant,  &c.,  p.  17,  et 
seq. 


MONOTHEISM  OF  THE  JEWS.  99 

the  reality  of  other  deities  is  generally  assumed. 
The  first  commandment  of  the  decalogue  implies 
the  existence  of  other  Gods.  The  mention  of  Sons 
of  God  who  visited  the  daughters  of  men  ;  ^  of  the 
divine  council  or  Host  of  Heaven  ;  ~  the  Contract 
Jacob  makes  with  Jehovah;^  the  frequent  reference 
to  strange  Gods ;  the  preeminence  claimed  for 
Jehovah  above  all  the  deities  of  the  other  nations  ;  ^ 
these  things  show  that  the  mind  of  the  writers  was 
not  decided  in  favor  of  the  exclusive  existence  of 
Jehovah.  The  people  and  their  kings  before  the 
exile  were  strongly  inclined  to  a  mingled  worship 
of  Fetichism  and  Polytheism,  a  medium  between 
the  ideal  religion  of  Moses  and  the  actual  worship 
of  the  Canaanites.  It  is  difficult,  in  the  present 
state  of  critical  investigation,  to  determine  nicely 
the  date  of  all  the  different  books  of  the  Jews,  but 
this  may  be  safely  said,  that  the  early  books  have 
more  of  a  polytheistic  tendency  than  the  writings 
of  the  later  prophets,  for  at  length,  both  the  learned 
and  the  unlearned  became  pure  Monotheists.^     At 


*  Gen.  VI.  2. 

«  Gen.  111.  22;  1  Kings  XXII.  19 ;  Job  II,  1. 
3  Gen.  XXVIII.20. 

*  See  the  numerous  passages  where  Jehovah  is  spoken  of  as  the 
chief  of  the  Gods;  2  Chr.  II.  5.;  Ps.  XCV.  XCVII.  7,  et  seq. ; 
Ex.  XII.  12,  XV.  11,  XVIII.  U,  «&c.  &c.  Strabo,  ubi  sup.  Lib.  XVI. 
Ch.  II.  §  35,  gives  a  strange  account  of  the  Jewish  theology. 

*  Compare  with  the  former  passages,  Jer.  II.  11,26-28;  Isa.  XLIV. 
6-20;  Deut.  IV.  23,  et  seq,  XXXII.  16,17,39;  Ps.  CXV.  CXXXV.  and 
Ecclcsiasticus  XXXIII.  5,  XLIIl.  28.  Wisdom  of  Sol.  XII.  13;  Baruch 
III.  3.5.  See  de  Wette,  Bib.  Dogmatik,  §  97,  et  seq  ,  and  149,  et  seq.,  who 
has  collected  some  of  the  most  important  passages. 


100  MONOTHEISM  OF  THE  JEWS. 

first  Jehovah  and  the  Elohim  seem  to  be  recognised 
as  joint  Gods  ;  ^  but  at  the  end  Jehovah  is  the  only 
God. 

But  the  character  assigned  him  is  fluctuating. 
He  is  always  the  Creator  and  Lord  of  Heaven  and 
Earth,  but  is  not  always  represented  as  the  Father 
of  all  nations,  but  of  the  Jews  only,  who  will  punish 
the  Heathens  with  most  awful  severity."  He  is 
almighty,  omnipresent  and  omniscient ;  eternal  and 
unalterable  in  some  parts  of  the  Old  Testament. 
But  in  others  he  is  represented  with  limitations 
in  respect  to  all  these  attributes.  Not  only  are  the 
sensual  perceptions  of  a  man  ascribed  to  him,  for 
this  is  unavoidable  in  popular  speech,  but  he  walks 
on  the  earth,  eats  with  Abraham,  wrestles  with 
Jacob,  appears  in  a  visible  form  to  Moses,  tempts 
men,  speaks  in  human  speech,  is  pleased  with 
the  fragrant  sacrifice,  sleeps  and  awakes,  rises 
early  in  the  morning  ;  is  jealous,  passionate,  re- 
vengeful.^    However,  in  other  passages  the  loftiest 

»  See  Bauer  Dicta  Clara,  V.  T.  &c.,]798,  Vol.  I.  §  41,  et  seq.  See 
also  the  treatise  of  Stahl  on  the  appearances  of  God,  &c.,  in  Eichhorn 
Bibliolhek  der  bib.  Lit.  Vol.  VII.  p.  150,  et  seq. 

^  See  an  able  article  on  "  the  Relation  of  Jehovah  to  the  Heathen," 
in  Eichhorn,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  VIII  p.  222,  et  seq.  See  Amnion's  progres- 
sive development  of  Christianity,  &€.,  translated  from  the  German,  Vol, 
I.  Book  I.  Ch.  I. 

■*  Lessing  well  sayf!,  the  Hebrews  proceeded  from  the  conception  of  the 
most  poicerful  God  to  that  of  the  only  God,  but  remained  for  a  long  time 
far  below  the  true  transcendent  notion  of  the  one  true  God.  "  Education 
of  the  human  race,"  Werke,  ed.  1824.  Vol.  XXIV.  p.  43-4.  See  also  on 
this  subject  of  Hebrew  Theism,  the  valuable  but  one-sided  views  of 
Vatke,  15ib.  Thcologie,  Vol.  I.  §  44,  et  seq.  But  see  also  Salvador,  Hist, 
des  Institutions  de  Moise,  &c  ,  Brussels  I6o0.  Vol.  III.  p.  175,  et  seq. 


MONOTHEISM  OF  THE  JEWS.  101 

attributes  arc  assigned  him.  He  is  the  God  of  in- 
finite Love  ;  Father  of  all,  who  possesses  the  Earth 
and  Heavens. 

The  conception  which  a  man  forms  of  God,  de- 
pends on  the  character  and  attainment  of  the  man 
himself;  this  diflered  with  the  Jews  as  with  the 
Greeks,  the  Christians  and  the  Mahometans. 
However,  this  must  be  confessed,  that  under  the 
guidance  of  divine  Providence,  the  great  and  beau- 
tiful doctrine  of  one  God  seems  most  early  em- 
braced by  the  great  Jewish  Lawgiver  ;  incorporated 
in  his  national  legislation  ;  defended  with  rigorous 
enactions,  and  slowly  communicated  to  the  world. 
At  our  day  it  is  difficult  to  understand  the  service 
rendered  to  the  human  race  by  the  mighty  soul  of 
Moses,  and  that  a  thousand  years  before  Anaxago- 
ras.^  His  name  is  ploughed  into  the  history  of  the 
world.  His  influence  can  never  die.  It  must  have 
been  a  vast  soul,  endowed  with  moral  and  religious 
genius  to  a  degree  extraordinary  among  men,  that 
at  that  early  age  could  attempt  to  found  a  stale  on 
the  doctrine  and  worship  of  one  God. 

Was  he  the  first  of  the  come-outers  ?  Or  had 
others,  too  far  before  the  age  for  its  acceptance, 
perished  before  him  in  the  greatness  of  their  en- 
deavor ?  History  is  silent.  But  the  bodies  of 
many  Prophets  must  be  rolled  into  the  gulf  that 
yawns  wide  and  deep  between  the  Ideal  and  the 


'  Constant,  TJv.  IV.  CIi  XI.  has  some  just  remarks  on  the  excellence 
of  the  Hebrew  theology. 


102  THE  TRANSITION  FROM 

Actual,  before  the  successful  man  comes  in  the  ful- 
ness of  time,  at  God's  command  to  lead  men  into 
the  promised  Land,  reaping  what  they  did  not 
sow.  These  men  have  risen  up  in  all  countries 
and  everj  time.  In  the  rudest  ages  as  in  the  most 
refined,  thej  look  through  the  glass  of  nature,  see- 
ing clearly  the  invisible  things  of  God,  and  by  the 
things  that  are  made  and  the  feelings  felt,  under- 
standing his  eternal  power  and  Godhead.  They 
adored  Him  as  the  Spirit  who  dwells  in  the  sun, 
looks  through  the  stars,  speaks  in  the  wind,  con- 
trols the  world ;  is  chief  of  all  powers,  animal, 
material,  spiritual,  and  Father  of  all  men  ;  their 
dear  and  blessed  God.  In  his  light  they  loved  to 
live  ;   nor  feared  to  die. 

There  is  a  great  advance  from  the  Fetichism  of 
the  Canaanite  to  the  pure  Theism  of  Moses ;  from 
the  rude  conceptions  of  the  New  Zealander  to  the 
refined  notions  of  an  enlightened  Christian.  Ages 
of  progress  and  revolution  seem  to  separate  them, 
so  different  is  their  theology.  Yet  the  Religion  of 
each  is  the  same,  distinguished  only  by  the  more 
and  less.  The  change  from  one  of  these  three  re- 
ligious types  to  the  other  is  slow ;  but  attended 
with  tumult,  war  and  suffering.  In  the  ancient 
civilized  nations,  little  is  known  of  their  passage 
from  Fetichism  to  Polytheism.  It  took  place  at 
an  early  age  of  the  world ;  before  written  docu- 
ments were  common.  We  have  therefore,  no 
records  to  verify  this  passage  in  the  history  of  the 


FETICHISM  TO  MONOTHEISM.  103 

Greeks,  Egyptians  or  Hebrews.  Yet  in  tlic  earliest ' 
periods  of  each  of  these  nations  we  lind  monu- 
ments wliic.h  show  that  Fetichism  was  not  far  off; 
and  furnish  a  liufiering  but  imperfect  evidence  of 
the  fierce  struggle  which  had  gone  on.  The  wrecks 
of  Fetichism  strew  the  shores  of  Greece  and  Egypt. 
Judea  furnishes  us  with  some  familiar  examples.^ 
In  the  patriarchal  times,  if  we  may  trust  the 
mythical  stories  in  Genesis,  w-e  find  sacred  stones 
which  seem  to  be  fetiches,  stone  piHars,-  idola- 
try,^ worship  of  Remphan  and  Chiun,  while  in 
Egypt  and  the  desert,^  the  golden  calf  of  Aaron 
and  that  of  Jeroboam,^  and  the  goats  that  were 
worshiped  in  the  wilderness.^  Besides,  we  find 
the  worship  of  the  serpent,'  a  relic  of  the  super- 
stition of  Egypt  or  Phoenicia,  the  worship  of  Baal 
in  its  various  forms, ^  of  Astarte  "  Heaven's  Queen 
and  Mother ;  "  of  Thammuz,  and  Moloch  ^  all  of 

'  The  legendary  character  of  the  Pentateuch  renders  it  unsafe  to  de- 
pend entirely  on  its  historical  statements.  Many  passages  seem  to  have 
been  originally  designed,  or  at  least  retouched  by  some  one  who  sought 
to  enhance  the  difference  between  Moses  and  the  people.  Still,  the 
"  general  drift"  of  the  tradition  is  not  to  be  mistaken  and  can  scarcely 
be  wrong.  The  testimony  of  the  prophets  respecting  the  early  state  of 
the  nation,  is  more  valuable  than  that  of  the  Pentateuch  itself. 

'  Gen.  XXVIII.  18,  XXXV.  14. 

3  Gen.  XXXI.  19,  XXXV.  1-4. 

*  See  Josh.  XXIV.  14;  Ezek.  XX.  7,  et  seq.  XXIII.  3;  Amos,  V.  25- 
26;  Exod.  XXXII.  1 ;  Lev.  XVII. 

»  Exod.  XXXII.  1-6;  1  Kings  XII.  28;  Ezek.  I.  10,  and  X.  14. 

•  Levit.  XVII.  7.     Devils,  in  our  version. 
'  Numb.  XXI.  4-9;  2  Kings  XVII.  4. 

8  1  Kings  XVIII.  23,  26,  28,  XIX.  18;  Jerem.  XIX.  5;  2  Kings  I. 
2;  Judges  VIII.  32,  IX.  4,  46  ;  Numb.  XXV.  1,  et  seq. 

»  1  Kings  XI.  33;  Jerem.  VII.  18;  Judges  II.  13,  X.  6;  2  Kings 
XXIII.  7;  Levit.  XIX.  ay;  Deut.  XXIII.  18;  Ezek.  VIII.  14;  2  Kings, 


104  THE  TRx\NSITION. 

which  seem  to  be  remains  of  Fetichism.     In  the 
verj  Law  itself  we  find  traces  of  Fetichism.     The 
prohibition  of  certain  kinds  of  food,  garments  and 
sacrifices  ;  the  forms  of  divination,  the  altars,  feasts, 
sacrifices,  scape-goat,  the  ornaments  of  the  priest's 
dress,  all  seem  to  have  grown  out  of  the  rude  wor- 
ship that  formerly  prevailed.     The  old  idolatry  was 
spiritualized,  its  forms  modified  and  made  to  serve 
for  the  worship  of  Jehovah.     The  frequent  relapses 
of  king  and  people  prove,   on  the  one  hand,  that 
the  nation  was  slowly  emerging  out  of  a  state  of 
great  darkness  and  superstition,  and  on  the  other, 
that  lofty  minds  and  noble  hearts  were  toiling  for 
their  redemption. 

For  many  centuries  a  most  bloody  contention 
went  on  between  the  ideal  Monotheism  and  the 
actual  idolatry  ;  at  times  it  was  a  war  of  extermina- 
tion. This  shows  how  difficult  it  is  to  introduce 
Monotheism  before  the  nation  is  ready  to  receive  it. 
They  must  wait  till  they  attain  the  requisite  moral 
and  intellectual  growth.  Before  this  is  reached, 
they  can  receive  it  but  in  name,  and  are  detained 
from  the  ruder,  and  to  them  more  congenial  form, 
only  at  the  expense  of  most  rigorous  laws,  suffering 
and  bloodshed.  Before  the  exile  the  Hebrews 
constantly  revolted  ;  afterwards  they  never  returned 

XXill.  5,  XVII.  16,  XXI.  3,  5;  Deut.  IV.  19,  XVII.  3;  2  Kings 
XXIII.  10;  Levit  XVIII.21,XX.  2  et  seq;  Deut.  XVIII.  10;  Jerem. 
VII.  31,  XIX.  5,  XXXII.  35.  See  the  testimony  of"  the  ancients  and  re- 
marks of  tiie  learned  on  this  subject  in  De  Wette  Archaologie,  «Slc., 
§  191,  et  seq.  and  §  2'M,  et  seq.  Vatke  goes  too  far  in  his  explanations, 
§  21-27,  but  his  book  ia  full  of  valuable  thoughts. 


NO  FORM  WITHOUT  TRUTH.  105 

to  the  ruder  worship,  but  ten  tribes  of  the  nation 
were  gone  forever. 

In  the  more  recent  conflict  of  Monotheism  and 
Polytheism,  the  history  of  the  Christian  and  Ma- 
hometan rchiiions  shows  what  sufferins;  is  endured 
first  by  tlie  advocates  of  the  new,  and  next  by  those 
of  the  old  faith,  before  the  rude  doctrine  could  give 
place  to  the  better.  War  and  extermination  do 
their  work,  and  remove  the  unbelieving.  Many  a 
country  has  been  Christianized  or  JMahometanized 
by  the  sword.  These  things  have  taken  place 
within  a  few  centuries ;  when  the  conquering  re- 
ligion was  of  the  mildest  character.  Are  the  wars 
of  Charlemagne  forgotten  ?  Go  back  thousands  of 
years,  to  the  strife  between  sacerdotal  Polytheism 
and  Fetichism,  when  each  was  a  bloody  faith,  and 
imagination  cannot  paint  the  horrors  of  the  struggle. 

Now,  each  of  these  forms  represents  a  truth,  or 
it  could  not  be  embraced  ;  a  great  truth,  or  it  would 
not  prevail  widely ;  yes,  all  of  truth  the  man  could 
receive  at  the  time  he  embraced  it.  We  creep 
before  w^alking.  Mankind  has  likewise  an  in- 
fancy, though  it  wall  at  length  put  away  childish 
things.  Each  of  these  forms  did  the  world  service 
in  its  day.  Its  truth  was  essential ;  its  error,  the 
result  of  accident.  It  happens  in  religious  as  in 
scientific  matters,  that  a  doctrine  contains  both  truth 
and  falsehood.  It  is  accepted  for  its  truth.  At 
first  the  falsehood  docs  little  harm,  for  it  comes 
in  contact  with  no  active  faculty  in  man  which  de- 

14 


106  PROGRESS  OF   MANKIND. 

tects  it.^  But  gradually  the  truth  does  its  work ; 
elevates  those  who  receive  it ;  new  faculties  awake  ; 
the  falsehood  is  seen  to  be  false.  The  free  man 
would  gladly  reject  it.  But  the  Priesthood,  whom 
interest  chains  to  the  old  form,  though  false,  or  the 
people,  not  yet  elevated  enough  to  see  the  truth, — 
will  not  separate  the  false  from  the  true.  It  says 
to  the  Prophet  and  the  Sage  "  Thou  shalt  accept 
the  old  doctrine  as  we  and  our  fathers.  It  is  from 
God ;  the  only  Rule.  Unless  thou  accept  it  on  the 
same  authority,  and  in  the  same  way  as  ourselves, 
we   will   burn   thee   and   thy   children  with   fire. 


'  We  often  see  the  most  strange  inconsistency  between  a  man's  con- 
duct and  his  creed.  The  worshiper  of  Jupiter  did  not  imitate  his  vices;  nor 
does  the  modern  devotee  of  some  unholy  creed,  with  a  Cliristian  name, 
become  what  the  creed  logically  demands.  A  man  may  hold  doctrines 
which  render  virtue  iiugatory ;  which  make  the  flesh  creep  with  horror ; 
and  yet  live  a  divine  life,  or  be  gay  even  to  frivolity.  The  late  Dr. 
Hopkins  was  a  striking  illustration  of  this  statement.  So  long  as  the 
religious  sentiment  preponderates,  the  false  doctrine  fails  of  its  legitimate 
effect.  See  some  judicious  observations  on  this  theme  in  Constant,  Liv. 
I.  Ch.  III.  IV.,  and  Polytheisme,  Rom.  Vol.  I.  p.  59-81. 

M.  Comte,  Vol.  V.  p.  280,  thinks  the  doctrine  of  pure  Monotheism  is 
perfectly  sterile  and  incapable  of  becoming  the  basis  of  a  true  religious 
system  !  Judging  only  from  experience,  his  conclusion  is  utterly  false. 
But  such  as  might  be  expected  from  one  who  is,  as  he  boasts,  "  equally 
free  from  Fetichistlc,  Polytheistic  and  Monotheistic  prejudices."  He 
looks  longingly  to  a  time  when  all  theism  shall  have  passed  away,  and 
the  "hypothesis  of  a  God"  become  exploded!  But  the  true  man  of 
science  is  of  all  men  most  modest  and  reverent.  He  who  has  followed 
Newton  through  the  wondrous  soaring  of  his  genius  comes  grateful  to 
that  swan-song,  beautiful  as  it  is  sublime,  with  which  he  finishes  his 
flight,  and  sings  of  the  one  cause,  eternal,  and  infinite,  who  rules  the 
all.  It  cannot  be  heard  without  a  tear  of  joy.  Principia,  edition  1833, 
Vol.  IV.  p.  199,  201.  "Et  hi  omnes,"  &c.  &c.  See  too  the  beautiful 
and  pious  conclusion  of  Mr.  Whewell  to  his  Philosophy  of  the  In- 
ductive Sciences,  Vol.  II.  p.  582-3. 


THE  TRUTH  OF   EACH  FORM.  107 

Thou  mayst  live  as  llkest  thee;  thou  shalt  believe 
with  us."  The  free  man  replies  "  Burn  then  if 
thou  wilt:  but  Truth  thou  canst  not  burn  down. 
A  lie  thou  canst  not  build  uj).  God  does  not  die 
with  his  children,  nor  Truth  with  its  martjrs." 

Then  as  Truth  is  stronger  than  every  Lie,  and 
he  that  has  her  is  mightier  than  all  men  ;  so  the 
faggot  of  martyrdom  proves  the  fire-pillar  of  the 
human  race,  guiding  them  from  the  bondage  and 
darkness  of  Egypt,  to  the  land  of  liberty  and  light. 
Truth,  armed  with  her  arrows  to  smite,  her  olive  to 
bless,  spreads  wide  her  wings  amid  the  outcry  of 
the  Priest  and  the  King.  Error  goes  down  to  the 
ground,  but  because  honored  beyond  her  time,  takes 
with  her  temple  and  tower  in  her  fall. 

The  Truth  represented  by  Fetichism  is  this. 
The  unknown  God  is  present  in  matter ;  spiritual 
power  is  the  strongest  of  forces.  Its  error  was  to 
make  matter  God.  The  truth  of  Polytheism  is, 
God  is  present,  and  active,  everywhere  ;  in  Space, 
in  Spirit ;  breathes  in  the  wind  ;  speaks  in  the 
storm  ;  inspires  to  acts  of  virtue  ;  helps  the  efforts 
of  all  true  men.  Its  falsehood  was,  it  divided 
God,  and  gave  but  a  chaos  of  deity.  When  the 
falsehood  was  seen  and  felt  to  be  such,  and  its  truth 
believed  in  for  itself,  on  its  own  authority,  then  was 
the  time  for  Fetichism  and  Polytheism  to  fall.  So 
they  fell,  never  to  hope  again,  for  mankind  never 
apostatizes.  One  generation  takes  up  the  Ark  of 
Religion  where  another  let  it  fall,  and  carries  for- 
ward the  hope  of  the  world.     The  old  form  never 


108  PROGRESS  OF  TRUTH. 

passes  away,  till  all  its  truth  is  transferred  to  the 
new.  These  types  of  religious  progress,  are  but 
the  frames  on  which  the  artist  spreads  the  canvass, 
while  he  paints  his  piece.  The  frame  may  perish 
when  this  is  done.  Fetichism  and  Polytheism  did 
good,  not  because  they  were  Fetichism  and  Poly- 
theism, but  because  Religion  was  in  them. 

Such,  then,  are  the  three  great  forms  assumed 
by  this  religious  sentiment.  We  cannot  understand 
the  mental  and  religious  state  of  men  who  saw  the 
divine  in  a  serpent,  a  cat,  or  an  enchanted  ring ; 
not  even  that  of  superstitious  Christians,  who  make 
earth  a  demon-land,  and  the  one  God  but  a  King 
of  Devils.  Yet  each  reli2:ious  doctrine  has  some- 
time  stood  for  a  truth.  It  was  devised  to  help 
pious  hearts,  and  has  imperfectly  accomplished  its 
purpose.  It  could  not  have  been  but  as  it  was. 
Looking  carelessly  at  the  past,  the  history  of  man's 
religious  consciousness  appears  but  a  series  of  revo- 
lutions. What  is  today  built  up  with  prayers  and 
tears,  is  pulled  down  tomorrow  with  shouting  and 
bloodshed,  giving  place  to  a  new  fabric  equally 
transient.  Prophets  were  mistaken,  and  saints  con- 
founded. Religious  history  is  the  tale  of  confusion. 
But  looking  deeper,  we  see  it  is  a  series  of  develop- 
ments, all  tending  towards  one  great  and  beautiful 
end,  the  harmonious  perfection  of  man  ;  that  in 
theology  as  in  other  science,  in  morals  as  in  theol- 
ogy, the  circle  of  his  vision  becomes  wider  con- 
tinually ;  his   opinions  more  true  ;  his   ideal  more 


PROGRESS  OF  TRUTH.  109 

fair  and  sublime.  Eacli  form  that  has  been,  bore  its 
justification  in  itself;  an  evil  that  "  God  winked  at," 
to  use  the  bold  figure  of  a  great  man.  It  was  natu- 
ral and  indispensable  in  its  time  and  place ;  a  part 
of  the  scheme  of  agencies  provided  from  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world.  Each  form  may  perish  ; 
but  its  truth  never  dies.  Nations  pass  away.  A 
handful  of  red  dust  alone  marks  the  spot  where  a 
metropolis  opened  its  hundred  gates  ;  but  Religion 
does  not  perish.  Cities  and  nations  mark  the  steps 
of  her  progress.  A  nation,  at  the  head  of  the  civil- 
ized world,  organizes  Religion  as  well  as  it  can  ; 
perpetuates  and  diffuses  its  truth,  and  thus  preaches 
the  advent  of  a  higher  faith,  and  prepares  its  way. 
Each  failure  is  a  prophecy  of  the  Perfect.  But  the 
change  from  faith  to  faith  is  attended  with  persecu- 
tion on  the  one  side,  and  martyrdom  on  the  other. 
A  little  philosophy  turns  men  from  Religion.  Much 
knowledge  restores  them  to  their  faith,  to  the  bosom 
of  Piety.  The  great  men  of  the  world,  men  gifted 
with  the  deepest  insight,  and  living  the  most  royal 
life,  have  been  man's  pioneers  in  these  steps  of 
progress.  Moses,  Hermes,  Confucius,  Budha,  Zo- 
roaster, Anaxagoras,  Socrates,  Plato,  have  lent 
their  holy  hands  in  man's  greatest  work.  Religion 
filled  their  soul  with  strength  and  liirht.  It  is  only 
little  men,  that  make  wide  the  mouth,  and  draw  out 
the  tongue  at  pure  and  genuine  piety  and  noble- 
ness of  heart.  Shall  we  not  judge  the  world,  as  a 
rose,  by  its  best  side  ?  God,  of  his  wisdom,  raises 
up  men  of  religious  genius ;  heaven-sent  prophets  ; 


110  RELIGION  IN  EVERY  AGE. 

born  fully  armed  and  fitted  for  their  fearful  work. 
They  have  an  eye  to  see  through  the  reverend  hulls 
of  falsity ;  to  detect  the  truth  a  long  way  off. 
They  send  their  eagle  gaze  far  down  into  the 
heart;  far  on  into  the  future,  thinking  for  ages  not 
yet  born.  The  word  comes  from  God  with  blessed 
radiance  upon  their  mind.  They  must  speak  the 
tidings  from  on  high,  and  shed  its  beamy  light  on 
men  around,  till  the  heavy  lids  are  opened,  and  the 
sleepy  eye  beholds.  But  alas  for  him  who  moves 
in  such  work.  If  there  be  not  superhuman  might 
to  sustain  him  ;  if  his  soul  be  not  naked  of  selfish- 
ness, he  will  say  often,  "  Alas  for  me  !  Would  God 
my  mother  had  died,  or  ever  I  was  born,  to  bear  all 
the  burdens  of  the  world,  and  right  its  wrongs." 
He  that  feareth  the  Lord  —  when  was  not  he  a 
prey  ?  He  must  take  his  life  in  his  hand,  and  be- 
come as  a  stranger  to  men.  But  if  he  fall  and 
perish,  it  is  his  gain.  Is  it  not  the  world's  ?  It  is 
the  burning  wood  that  warms  men. 

In  passing  judgment  on  these  different  religious 
states,  we  are  never  to  forget,  that  there  is  no  mo- 
nopoly of  Religion  by  any  nation  or  any  age.  Re- 
ligion itself  is  one  and  the  same.  He  that  worships 
truly,  by  whatever  form,  worships  the  Only  God. 
He  hears  the  prayer,  whether  called  Brahma,  Jeho- 
vah, Pan,  or  Lord  ;  or  called  by  no  name  at  all. 
Each  people  has  its  Prophets  and  its  Saints  ;  and 
many  a  swarthy  Indian,  who  bowed  down  to  wood 
and  stone  ;  many  a  grim-faced  Calmuck,  who  wor- 
shiped the  great  God  of  Storms ;  many  a  Grecian 


RELIGION  m  EVERY  AGE.  Ill 

peasant,  who  did  homage  to  Phoebus- A  polio  when 
the  Sun  rose  or  went  down  ;  yes,  many  a  savage, 
his  hands  smeared  all  over  with  human  sacrifice, 
shall  come  from  the  East  and  the  West,  and  sit 
down  in  the  Kingdom  of  God,  with  Moses  and 
Zoroaster,  with  Socrates  and  Jesus,  —  while  men, 
who  called  daily  on  the  only  living  God,  who  paid 
their  tribute  and  bowed  at  the  name  of  Christ,  shall 
be  cast  out,  because  they  did  no  more.  Men  are 
to  be  judged  by  what  is  given,  not  what  is  with- 
held. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


OF  CERTAIN  DOCTRINES  CONNECTED  WITH  RELIGION.  I.  OF 
THE  PRIMITIVE  STATE  OF  MANKIND.  II.  OF  THE  IMMOR- 
TALITY   OF    THE    SOUL. 

I.  Of  the  Primitive  State  of  Mankind. 

Various  theories  have  been  connected  with  Re- 
ligion, respecting  the  origin  and  primitive  condition 
of  the  human  race.  Many  nations  have  claimed 
to  be  the  primitive  possessors  of  their  native  soil, 
Autochthones,  who  sprang  miraculously  out  of  the 
ground,  were  descended  from  stones,  grasshoppers, 
emmets,  or  other  created  things.  Others  call  them- 
selves children  of  the  Gods.^  Some  nations  trace 
back  their  descent  to  a  time  of  utter  barbarism, 
whence  the  Gods  recalled  them  ;  others  start 
from  a  golden  age,  as  the  primitive  condition  of 
man.^     The  latter  opinion  prevailed  with  the  He- 

*  Diodorus  Siculus  says,  somewhere,  all  aneient  elaim  to  be  the  most 
ancient. 

^  See  the  heathen  view  of  this  in  Hesiod,  Opera  et  Dies.  Lucretius 
V.  923,  et  seq.  Virgil,  Georg.  1. 125,  et  seq.  Eel.  IV.  Ovid  Met.  I.  89, 
et  seq.  Plato,  Polit.  p.  271,  et  seq.  See  Heyne,  Opusc.  Vol.  III.  p.  24, 
et  seq.     1  Hesiod's  Theog.  521-579.     See  other  parallels  in  Bauer's  My- 


PRIMITIVE  STATE.  113 

brews,  from  whom  the  Christians  have  derived  it. 
According  to  them,  the  primitive  state  was  one  of 
the  highest  felicitv,  from  which  man  fell.  The 
primitive  worship,  therefore,  must  have  been  the 
normal  Religion  of  mankind. 

This  difficult  question  then  presents  itself:  From 
what  point  did  the  human  race  set  out ;  from  civili- 
zation and  the  true  worship  of  one  God,  or  from 
cannibalism  and  the  deification  of  nature  ?  Has  the 
human  race  fallen  or  risen  ?  The  question  is  purely 
historical,  and  to  be  answered  by  historical  wit- 
nesses. But  in  the  presence,  and  still  more  in  the 
absence,  of  such  witnesses,  the  a  priori  doctrines  of 
the  man's  philosophy  affect  his  decision.  Reason- 
ins:  with  no  facts  is  easy,  as  all  motion  in  vacuo. 
The  analogy  of  the  geological  formation  of  the 
earth  ;  its  gradual  preparation,  so  to  say,  for  the 
reception  of  plants  and  animals,  the  ruder  first,  and 
then  the  more  complex  and  beautiful,  till  at  last 
she  opens  her  bosom  to  man,  —  this,  in  connection 
with  many  similar  analogies,  would  tend  to  show 
that  a  similar  order  was  to  be  expected  in  the 
affairs  of  men  ;  development  from  the  lower  to  the 
higher,  and  not  the  reverse.  In  strict  accordance 
with  this  analogy,  some   have  taught  that  man  was 

thologie  des  A.  T.  &c  Vol.  I.  p.  85,  et  eeq.  See  also  the  curious  specu- 
lations of  Eichhorn  (Urgeschichte  ed.  Gabler.)  Buttmann  (Mytholo- 
gus)  and  Hartmann  (Uber  des  Pentateuch).  Compare  RosenmUUer 
(Alter-thumskunde,  Vol.  I.  Part  I.  p.  180,  ct  seq.)  and  the  striking  pas- 
sage in  Kleuker's  Zendavesta,  Vol.  II.  p.  211,  227,  et  seq.;  Ill  p.  83. 
See  Rhodes's  remarks  upon  the  passages,  ubi  supra,  p.  3S6,  et  seq.  See 
Bauer,  Dicta  clara,  §  52. 

15 


114  PRIMITIVE  STATE  OF  MANKIND. 

created  in  the  lowest  stage  of  savage  life  ;  his  Re- 
ligion the  rudest  worship  of  nature  ;  his  Morality 
that  of  the  cannibal;  that  all  of  the  civilized  races 
have  risen  from  this  point,  and  gradually  passed 
through  Fetichism  and  Polytheism,  before  they 
reached  refinement  and  true  Religion.  The  spiritual 
man  is  the  gradual  development  of  germs  latent  in 
the  natural  man.^ 

Another  party,  consisting  more  of  poets  and  dog- 
matists, than  of  philosophers,  teaches  the  opposite 
doctrine,  that  a  single  human  pair  was  created  in 
the  full  maturity  of  their  powers,  with  a  perfect 
morality  and   Religion  ;    that  they  fell  from  this 


'  M.  Comte  pushes  this  doctrine  to  the  farthest  extreme,  Vol.  V.  p.32, 
et  al.  Here  arises  the  kindred  question,  Have  all  the  human  race  de- 
scended from  a  single  pair,  or  started  up  in  the  various  parts  of  the  earth 
where  we  find  them  ?'  The  first  opinion  has  been  defended  by  the  Christ- 
ian church,  in  general  with  more  obstinacy  than  argument.  Pritchard, 
ubi  sup.,  derives  all  from  one  stock,  and  collects  many  interesting  facts 
relative  to  the  human  race  in  various  conditions.  But  the  unity  of  the 
race  is  not  to  be  made  out  gaicalogically  ;  it  is  essential  to  the  nature  of 
mankind.  Augustine  has  some  curious  speculations  on  this  head,  De 
civitate  Dei.  XII.  21.  XIII.  19-23.  XIV.  10-12,  16-26.  Lactantius, 
Institut.  II.  11.  VII.  4.  See  the  opinions  of  Buddeus,  and  the  curious 
literature  he  cites,  Hist.  Ecclesiastica,  Vol.  I.  p.  92,  et  seq.  On  the  other 
hand.  Palfrey's  Academical  Lectures,  Vol.  H.  Lect.  XXI.-XXll. 
Kant,  von  der  Racen  der  Menschen ;  Werke,  Vol.  VI.  p.  313,  et  seq. 
Begriffeiner  Menschenrace  ;  ib.  p.  333,  et  seq.  Muthmaaslicher  Anfang 
der  Menschcngeschichte  ;  ib.  Vol.  VII.  p.  363,  et  seq.  Even  Schleier- 
macher  departs  from  the  common  view.  Christliche  Glaube,  §  60-61. 
See,  on  the  other  side,  the  ingenious  observations  of  Samuel  S.  Smith, 
Inquiry  into  the  causes  of  different  complexions,  etc.  of  the  human  race. 
To  make  out  the  case,  that  all  men  are  descended  from  a  primitive  pair, 
it  is  only  necessary  to  assume,  philosophically,  a  principle  in  the  first 
man,  whence  all  varieties  may  be  derived,  and  then,  historically,  to  as- 
sume the  derivation,  and  the  circle  is  complete.  Karnes  has  some  disin- 
genuous remarks,  in  his  History  of  man.  Preliminary  Discourse. 


PRIMITIVE  STATE  OF  MANKIND.  116 

State,  and  while  some  few  kept  alive  the  lamp  of 
Truth,  and  passed  it  on  from  hand  to  hand,  that  the 
mass  sunk  into  barbarity  and  sin,  whence  they  are 
slowly  emerging,  aided  of  course  by  the  traditional 
torch  of  Truth,  still  kept  by  their  more  fortunate 
brothers.^ 

Now  111  favor  of  this  latter  opinion  there  is  no 
direct  historical  testimony  except  the  legendary  and 
mythological  writings  of  the  Hebrews,  which  have 
no  more  authority  in  the  premises  than  the  similar 
narratives  of  the  Phoenicians,  the  Persians,  and 
Chinese.  If  we  assume  the  miraculous  authority  of 
these  legends,  the  matter  ends — in  an  assumption. 
The  indirect  testimony  in  favor  of  this  doctrine  is 
this  :  The  opinion,  found  in  many  nations,  that 
there  had  once  been  a  golden  age.  Now,  if  this 
opinion  were  universal,  it  would  not  prove  the  fact 


"  See  this,  which  is  the  prevalent  opinion,  set  forth  by  Knapp,  ubi  sup. 
Vol.  I.  §  54-57.  Hahn,  Lchrbuch  der  Christ.  Glaube,  §  74-75.  Tho- 
hick,  in  Biblical  Repository,  Vol.  II.  p.  119,  et  seq.  Hopkins's  System 
of  Doctrines,  etc.  2d  edit.  Vol.  I.  Part  I.  Chap.  V.  VIII.  Bretschneider 
Dogmatik,  4th  edit.  Vol.  1.  §  112,  et  seq.,  gives  the  Lutheran  view  of  this 
subject,  but  thiriks  Okcn  is  no  hereticfor  maintaining  (in  the  Isis  for  1819, 
Vol.  II.  p.  1118),  that  man  may  have  arisen  from  an  emhrijo  with  human 
qualities,  in  the  slime  of  the  sea!  p.  812.  See  Jeremy  Taylor,  Doctrine 
and  Practice  of  Repentance,  Chap.  VI.,  and  the  conflicting  remarks  in 
the  Sermon  at  the  funeral  of  Sir  George  Dalston.  See  Jonathan  Edwards, 
Original  Sin,  Part  II.  Chap.  I.  and  Notes  on  Bible,  Works,  Lond.  1839, 
Vol.  II.  p.  GS9,  et  seq.  More  on  the  same  subject  may  be  seen  in  Faber's 
Horne  Mosaicae.  Edwards  On  the  Truth  and  Authority  of  the  Scriptures. 
Collier's  Lectures  on  Scripture  Facts.  Gray's  Connection  between  Sa- 
cred and  Profane  Literature.  Cormack's  Inquiry.  Fletcher's  Appeal. 
Deane's  Worship  of  the  Serpent,  &c.  &.c.  See  the  opinions  of  the  An- 
cients on  the  creation  and  primitive  state  of  Man,  collected  in  Grotius, 
De  Veritale,  ed.  Clericus,  Lib.  I.  §  16. 


116  PRIMITIVE  STATE  OF  MANKIND. 

alleged,  for  it  can  easily  be  explained  ft-om  the  no- 
torious tendency  of  men,  in  a  low  state  of  civiliza- 
tion, to  aggrandize  the  past ;  the  senses  delight  to 
remember.  The  opinion  only  serves  to  illustrate 
this  tendency.  The  sensual  Greek  often  looked 
longingly  backward  to  the  Golden  Age  ;  but  the 
more  spiritual  prophet  of  the  Hebrews  looks  for- 
ward to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  yet  to  be.  But 
the  opinion  prevails  among  many  nations,  that  they 
have  slowly  advanced  from  a  ruder  state. ^ 

Again,  it  is  often  alleged,  that  no  nation  has  ever 
risen  out  of  the  savage  state  except  under  the  influ- 
ence of  tribes  previously  enlightened — an  his- 
torical thesis  which  has  never  been  proved.  No 
one  knows  whence  the  Chinese,  the  Mexicans,  the 
Peruvians,  derived  assistance.  We  have  yet  to  be 
told  who  taught  the  Greenlander  to  build  his  boat; 
the  Otaheitan  to  fashion  his  war  club ;  the  Sacs  and 
Pawnees  to  handle  the  hatchet,  cook  the  flesh  of 
the  buffalo,  and  wear  his  skin.  Besides,  it  is  beg- 
ging the  question,  to  say  the  civilization  of  Rome, 
Athens,  Tyre,  Egypt,  Babylon,  Nineveh,  came  from 
the  traditionary  knowledge  of  some  primitive  peo- 
ple. If  a  savage  nation  in  seven  centuries  can 
learn  to  use  oil  and  tallow  for  light,  in  a  time  suffi- 
ciently long  it  may  write  the  Iliad,  and  build  the 
Parthenon. 


•  Strauss,  Die  Christ.  Glaubenslehre,  1840-41,  Vol.  I.  §  45,  et  seq. 
decides  against  the  hypothesis  of  a  single  pair,  and  even  ascribes  the  ori- 
gin of  man  to  the  power  of  equivocal  generation.  But  his  arguments  in 
favor  of  the  latter  have  little  or  no  vreight.     See  Kames,  ubi  sup. 


^PRIMITIVE  STATE  OF  MANKIND.  1  1  7 

Again,  it  is  said  that  traces  of  Monotheism  are 
found  in  all  the  lower  stages  of  religion.  This 
must  necessarily  follow  from  the  identity  of  the 
human  race  ;  from  the  Sentiment  and  Idea  of  God, 
expressing  themselves  spontaneously.  If  man  is 
the  same  in  all  ages,  and  this  sentiment  is  natural 
to  him,  then  we  must  expect  to  find  such  expres- 
sions of  it  in  the  poets  and  philosophers ;  in  the  re- 
ligion of  India,  Greece,  and  Rome.  Men  of  the  same 
spiritual  elevation  see  everywhere  the  same  spirit- 
ual truth.  If  this  doctrine  of  JNlonotheism  proceed 
from  tradition  alone,  then  it  must  be  more  clear 
and  distinct  as  we  approach  the  source  of  the  tradi- 
tion.    But  this  is  notoriously  contrary  to  facts. ^ 

The  opposite  doctrine  has  no  more  of  direct  his- 
torical testimony  in  its  favor  ;  but  is  supported  by 
many  indirect  testimonies  :  By  the  fact,  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  human  race  are  still  in  the  con- 
dition of  Fetichism  and  Polytheism,  and  that  the 
farther  we  go  back  in  history  the  worse  is  this  state, 
and  the  ruder  their  religion.  In  the  days  of  Hero- 
dotus, the  proportion  of  rude  and  savage  people 
was  far  greater  than  at  this  day.  Even  in  that  na- 
tion alleged  to  be  most  highly  favored,  we  find 
their  social,  moral  and  religious  condition  is  more 
rude  the  farther  we  trace  it  back.  They  and  other 
nations,  at  the  time  we  first  meet  them  in  history, 
bordered  close  upon  the  Fetichistic  state  to  which 

'  Voltaire  Essai  sur  les  Mceurs,  &c.  edit.  1785,  Vol.  I.  p.  17,  etseq.  29, 
et  seq.  has  many  just  remarks  on  the  ruder  periods  of  society. 


118  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL. 

their  mythology  refers.     No  nation  has  ever  been 
found  in  a  normal  state  of  religious  culture. 

If  we  reason  only  from  established  facts,  we 
must  conclude,  that  the  hypothesis  of  a  golden  age, 
a  garden  of  Eden,  a  perfect  condition  of  man  on 
the  earth  in  ancient  times,  is  purely  gratuitous. 
The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  not  behind  but  before 
us.  No  one  can  determine  what  was  the  primitive 
state  of  the  human  race,  or  when,  or  where,  or 
how  mankind,  at  the  command  of  God,  came  into 
existence.  Here  our  conclusions  can  be  only  neg- 
ative.^ 

n.    On  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul. 

The  doctrine  that  man  lives  forever  seems  almost 
as  general  as  the  belief  in  a  God.  Like  that,  it 
comes  naturally  from  an  eternal  desire  in  the  human 
heart ;  a  longing  after  the  Infinite.  In  the  rudest 
nations  and  the  most  civilized,  this  doctrine  ap- 
pears. Perhaps  there  has  never  been  but  a  single 
form  of  Religion  under  which  it  was  not  taught 
plainly  and  distinctly,  and  here  it  was  continually 
implied.  It  seems  we  have  by  nature  a  sentiment 
of  immortality  ;  an  instinctive  belief  therein.    Rude 


>  Constant,  Liv.  X.  Ch.  VI.  treats  this  subject  with  a  superficiality 
unusual  even  with  him,  and  concludes  the  doctiine  of  a  Fall  is  a  device 
of  the  Priesthood.  See  some  admirable  remarks  on  the  savage  state  in 
de  Maistre,  Soirees  de  St.  Petersburg,  Vol.  I.  See  also  Leroux's  criticism 
on  the  opinions  of  Jouffroy  and  Pascal.  Refutation  de  I'Eclecticism, 
1840,  p.  330,  et  seq.  Leroux  believes  in  the  progress  of  all  species,  Man, 
the  Beaver,  and  the  Bee.  M.  Maret,  ubi  sup.,  p.  30  et  seq.  and  240,  et 
seq.  makes  some  very  judicious  observations. 


IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL.  119 

nations,  in  whom  instinct  seems  to  predominate, 
trust  the  spontaneous  belief.  They  construct  an 
ideal  world,  in  which  the  sliade  of  the  departed 
pursues  his  calling  and  finds  justice  at  the  last;  re- 
compense for  his  toil  ;  right  for  his  earthly  wrongs. 
The  conception  of  the  form  of  future  life  depends  on 
the  condition  and  character  of  the  believer.  Hence 
it  is  a  state  of  war  or  peace  ;  of  sensual  or  spiritual 
delight ;  of  reform  or  progress,  with  different  na- 
tions. The  notion  formed  of  the  next  world  is  the 
index  of  man's  state  in  this.  Here  the  Idolater 
and  the  Pantheist,  the  Mahometan  and  the  Chris- 
tian, express  their  conflicting  views  of  life.  The 
Sentiment  and  Idea  of  immortality  may  be  true, 
but  the  definite  conception  must  be  false.  In  a 
low  stage  of  civilization  the  doctrine,  like  Religion 
itself,  seems  to  have  but  little  influence  on  life.  It 
presents  no  motive  to  virtue,  and  therefore  does  not 
receive  the  same  place  in  their  system,  as  at  a  sub- 
sequent period. 

In  rude  ages,  men  reason  but  little.  As  they 
begin  to  be  civilized  they  ask  proofs  of  Immortality, 
not  satisfied  with  the  instinctive  feeling ;  not  con- 
vinced that  infinite  goodness  will  do  what  is  best 
for  all  and  each  of  his  creatures.  Hence  come 
doubts  on  this  head  ;  inquiries  ;  attempts  to  prove 
the  doctrine  ;  a  denial  of  it.  There  seems  an  an- 
tithesis between  instinct  and  understanding.  The 
reasoning  of  men  is  then  against  it,  but  when  an 
accident  drives  them  to  somewhat  more  funda- 
mental than  processes  of  logic,  the  instinctive  belief 


120  OPINION  OF  THE  HEBREWS 

does  its  work.  Here  then  are  three  distinct  things  ; 
a  belief  in  a  future  and  immortal  state  ;  a  definite 
conception  of  that  state  ;  and  'a  proof  oi  the  fact  of  a 
future  and  immortal  state.  The  two  latter  may 
be  fluctuating  and  inadequate,  while  the  former 
remains  secure. 

Now  it  may  be  considered  as  pretty  well  fixed, 
that  all  nations  of  the  earth  believe  this  doctrine  ; 
at  least,  the  exceptions  are  so  rare,  that  they  only 
confirm  the  rule.  However,  it  is  often  difficult,  and 
sometimes  impossible  to  determine  the  popular  con- 
ception, and  the  influence  of  this  belief  at  a  par- 
ticular time  and  place.  But  the  subject  demands  a 
more  special  and  detailed  examination.  Let  us 
look  at  the  opinion  of  the  ancients. 

I.  Opinion  of  the  Hebrews  respecting  a  Future  State. 
It  has  sometimes  been  taught  that  this  doc- 
trine was  perfectly  understood,  even  by  the  Patri- 
archs ;  and  sometimes  declared  altogether  forei2;n 
to  the  Old  Testament.  Both  statements  are  incor- 
rect. In  some  parts  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  we 
find  rude  notions  of  a  future  state,  but  a  firm  belief 
in  it ;  in  others  doubt,  and  even  denial  thereof. 
In  the  early  books,  at  least,  it  never  appears  as  a 
motive.  It  has  no  sanction  in  the  law ;  no  symbol 
in  the  Jewish  worship.  The  soul  was  sometimes 
placed  in  the  blood,  as  by  Empedocles  ;  ^  sometimes 


'  Gen.  IX.  4  ;  Lev.  XVII.  1 1  ;  Deut.  XII.  23.    See  Cicero,  Tusc.  Lib, 
I.  Ch.  9, 10. 


RESPECTING  THE  FUTURE  STATE.        121 

ill  the  breath  ;  ^  the  heart,  or  the  bowels  were 
sometimes  considered  as  its  seat.-  The  notion  of 
immortality  was  indefinite  in  tlie  early  books ; 
there  are  cloudy  views  of  a  subterranean  world,^ 
which  gradually  acquire  more  distinctness.  The 
state  of  the  departed  is  a  gloomy,  joyless  conscious- 
ness ;  the  servant  is  free  from  his  master ;  the  king 
has  a  shadowy  grandeur.^  The  dead  prophet  can 
be  called  back  to  admonish  the  livinji.  Enoch  and 
Elijah,  like  Ganymede  with  the  Greeks,  being  fa- 
vorites of  the  deity,  are  taken  miraculously  to  him.^ 
Others  deny  the  doctrine  of  immortality  with  great 
plainness.^ 

After  the  return  from  exile,  the  doctrine  appears 
more  definitely.  Ezekiel,  and  the  Pseudo-Isaiah^ 
allude  to  a  resurrection  of  the  body,  a  notion  which 


'  Gen.  11.  7;  Ps.  CIV.  29,  et  al. 

"  Deut.  XXXII.  4G;  Ps.  XCV.  10;  Ps.  XVI.  7 ;  Prov.  XXIIl.  16, 
et  al. 

»  Gen.  XXV.  8,  XXXVII.  35  ;  Num  XVI.  30,  33.  In  Job,  Isaiah,  and 
the  Psalms  this  becomes  more  definite.     Job  X.  21,  XXXVIII.  17. 

*  Job  III.  19;  Isaiah  XIV.;  Ezek.  XXXII.;  1  Sara.  XXVIII.  See 
Homer,  Od.  XI.  Virgil,  ^neid.  VI. 

*  See  also  Ps.  XVII.  1-5;  LXXIII.  24.  See  the  mistakes  of  Michaelis 
respecting  this  doctrine  of  immortality,  in  his  Argumenta  immortalitate, 
...  ex  Mose  coUecta,  in  his  Syntagma  Comment.  Vol.  I.  p.  ^0,  et  seq. 
See  his  notes  on  Lowth,  p.  403,  ed.  RosenmQller.  Warburton  founds  hia 
strange  hypothesis  on  the  opposite  view.  See  on  this  point,  Bauer  Dicta 
clara.  Vol.  II.  §  5G,  et  seq,  de  Wette,  ubi  sup.  §  113,  et  seq.  Lessing 
Beytragen  aus  der  Wolfenbuttelschcn  Bibliolhek.  Vol.  IV.  p.  4.-'4,  et 
seq.  See  the  moderate  and  judicious  remarks  of  Knapp,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  II. 
§   149. 

«  Eccles.  III.  19-21,  IX.  10. 

'  Ezek.  XXXVII. ;  Isa.  XXVI.  19.    See  Gesenius  in  loco. 
16 


122  OPINION  OF  THE   HEBREWS 

is  perhaps  of  Zoroastrian  origin.^  Perhaps  older 
than  Zoroaster.  But  it  is  only  a  doubtful  immor-- 
tality  that  is  taught  in  the  apocryphal  book  of  Ec- 
clesiasticus,  though  in  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,^  and 
in  the  fourth  book  of  Maccabees,  it  is  set  forth  with 
great  clearness.^  The  second  book  of  Maccabees 
teaches  in  the  plainest  terms  the  resurrection  of  all ; 
the  righteous  to  happiness,  the  wicked  to  shame. ^ 
They  will  find  their  former  friends,  and  resume 
their  old  pursuits.^     Nothing  is  plainer. 

At  the  time  of  Jesus,  the  Pharisees  believed  in 
the  resurrection  of  the  body  ;  a  state  of  rewards 
and  punishments.^  Some  of  them  connected  it 
with  the  common  notion  of  the  transmigration  of 
souls  ; '  perhaps  with  that  of  preexistence.  The 
Essenes,  still  more  philosophically,  taught  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  and  the  certainty  of  retribu- 
tion, without  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  The 
soul  is  formed  of  the  most  subtle  air,  and  is  con- 
fined in  the  body  as  in  a  prison  ;  death  redeems  it 


'  Rhode,  ubi  sup.  p.  494,  Nork,  Mythen  der  alten  Perser,  1835,  p.  148, 
et  seq.     Priestley,  ubi  sup.  §  XXIII. 

2  I.  15,  16  ;  11.  22;  III.  et  seq. ;  V.  15;  VI.  18.  It  is  connected  with 
a  prefix istent  state,  VIII.  19-20. 

3  XV.  3 ;  XVI.  25  ;  XVII.  18,  et  al.  de  Wette,  ubi  sup. 

*  VII.  9,11,14,23;  XII.  43,  et  seq. ;  XV.  12,  etseq. 

*  See  in  Eichhorn,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  IV.  p.  653,  et  seq.,  a  valuable  contri- 
bution to  the  History  of  this  doctrine  by  Frisch.  He  makes  an  ingenious 
comparison  of  passages  from  the  Apocrypha,  and  the  New  Testament, 
The  same  doctrine  is  taught  in  both. 

6  Acts  XXIII.  6-8  ;  XXIV.  15  ;  Math.  XXII.  24,  et  seq. ;  Mark  XII. 
19,  et  seq. 

'^  Josephus,  Wars,  II.  8,  14.  Josephus  may  have  added  the  Metempsy- 
chosis to  suit  the  taste  of  his  readers. 


RESPECTING   A   FUTURE  STATE.  123 

from  a  long  bondage,  and  the  living  soul  mounts 
upward  rejoicing.^  We  find  similar  views  in  Philo.^ 
Perhaps  they  were  common  in  reflecting  minds  at 
the  time  of  Christ,  who  always  presupposes  a  be- 
lief in  immortality.  The  Sadducees  alone  opposed 
it.  Such  were  the  beginning  and  history  of  this 
dogma  with  the  Jews.  Its  progress  and  formation 
are  obvious. 

II.  Of  this  Doctrine  among  the  Heathen  Nations. 
Amone:  savaae  nations  this  belief  is  common. 
It  appears  in  prayers  and  offerings  for  the  dead  ;  in 
the  mode  of  biuial.  The  savage  American  deposits 
in  the  tomb  the  bow  and  the  pipe,  the  dress  and 
the  tomahawk  of  the  deceased  warrior.  The 
Scythian,  the  Goth,  the  Indian,  and  the  half-bar- 
barous Greek,  burned  or  buried  the  horse,  or  the 


'  Josephus,  Wars.  II.  8,  11.  Josephus  himself  seems  to  agree  with 
this  opinion,  when  he  "  talks  like  a  philosopher "  in  his  pretended 
speech.  Wars.  III.  8,  5.  See  Buddeus,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  II.  p.  1202,  et  seq., 
Paulus  Memorabilia,  Vol.  II.  p.  157,  et  seq.  and  de  Wette,  ubi  sup. 
§  178,  et  seq. 

2  See  also  the  views  of  Philo,  De  Somniis,  p.  586,  De  Abrah,  p.  385. 
De  Mundi  opif,  p.  31.  The  soul  is  immortal  by  nature,  not  hy  grace. 
See  Dilhne  Geschichtliche  Darstellung  dor  Judischen,  Ale.xand.  Philoso- 
phic, «&c.,  1834,  Vol.  I.  p.  330,  et  seq  ,  405,  485,  et  seq.,  who  cites  the 
above  and  other  proof  passages.  Rittcr,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  IV.  See  Weizel  on 
the  primitive  doctrine  of  immortality  among  the  Christians,  in  Theol. 
Stud  und  Kritiken,  for  1836,  p.  957,  et  seq.  Constant,  Liv.  IX.  Ch.  VII. 
makes  some  just  remarks  on  this  subject.  On  the  state  of  opinions  in 
the  time  of  Christ,  see  Gfrorer,  Jahrhundert  des  Heils,  1838.  Vol.  II.  Ch. 
VII.  Triglandius  de  tribus  Judffiorum  sectis,  in  quo  Serarii,  Drusii, 
Scaligeri,  Opuscula,  etc.,  1703,  Vol,  I.  Part  1,  Lib.  II.  and  III.  Part  II. 
Lib.  II — IV.  and  Scaliger's  Animadversions  ;  and  the  very  valuable 
treatise  of  Leclerc,  Prolegomena  ad  Hist.  Eccl.  Lib.  I.  Chap.  I. 


124  OPIIMION  OF  THE   HEATHEN 

servant,  the  wife,  or  the  captive  of  a  great  man  at 
his  decease,  that  he  might  go  down  rojally  attended  ' 
to  the  realm  of  shades.  Metempsychosis ;  the 
deification  of  the  dead  ;  ceremonies  in  their  honor  ; 
gifts  left  on  their  tombs  ;  oaths  confirmed  in  then- 
name,  are  all  signs  of  this  belief.^  The  Egyptians, 
the  Gauls,  and  Scandinavians  spoke  of  death  as 
the  object  of  life.  Lucan  foolishly  thinks  the  latter 
are  brave  because  they  believe  in  endless  existence. 
Each  savage  people  has  its  place  of  souls.  Death 
with  them  is  not  an  extinction,  but  a  change  of 
life.  The  tomb  is  a  sacred  place.  No  expense  is 
too  great  for  the  dead.  Their  picture  of  Heaven  is 
earth  embellished.  At  first,  the  next  world  is  not 
a  domain  of  moral  justice  ;  God  has  no  tribunal  of 
judgment.  But  with  the  advance  of  the  present,  the 
conception  of  a  future  state  rises  also.  The  Paw- 
nees have  but  one  place  for  all  the  departed.  The 
Scandinavians  have  two,  Nifleheim  and  Nastrond ; 
the  Persians  seven  ;  the  Hindoos  no  less  than  twen- 
ty-four, for  different  degrees  of  merit. ^  With  many 
savages,  the  good  and  evil  become  angels  to  bless, 
or  demons  to  curse  mankind.^ 

'  See  Lafitau,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  II.  p.  387, et  seq.,  410,  et  seq., 420,  et  seq. , 444, 
et  seq.  Vol.  I.  p.  359,  et  seq.,  407,  et  seq.  Catlin,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  I. 
Bancroft's  Hist.  Vol.  III.  Ch.  XXII.  Constant,  Livre  IX.  Ch.  VII. 
VIII.  Livre  II.  Ch.  IV. 

^  Constant,  ibid.  Meiners,  ubi  supra.  Vol.  I.  Book  III.  See  Leroux, 
De  rHumanit6,  etc.  Vol.  II,  p.  4G8,  et  seq. 

3  Meiners,  p.  302,  etsup.  Farmer,  On  the  Worship  of  Human  Spirits, 
passim.  I  have  mentioned  a  few  books  on  this  subject,  which  have  fur- 
nished the  facts  on  which  the  above  conclusions  rest.  I  can  refer  to  books 
of  Travels,  Voyages  in  general,  the  Lettres  Edifiantes,  descriptions  of 


RESPECTING  THE   FUTURE  STATE.  125 

To  come  to  the  civilized  states  of  antiquity,  In- 
dia, Egypt,  Persia,  we  find  tlie  doctrine  prevalent 
in  the  earliest  time,  even  in  the  ages  when  My- 
thology takes  the  place  of  History.  In  India  and 
Egypt  it  was  most  often  connected  with  transmi- 
gration to  other  he  dies.  Herodotus  says,  the 
Egyptians  first  taught  the  doctrine.^  But  who 
knows?  Pausanias  is  nearer  the  truth  when  he 
refers  it  to  India,^  where  it  was  taught  before  the 
birth  of  Philosophy  in  the  West.^  It  begins  with 
the  beginning  of  the  nations. 

In  Greece  we  find  it  in  a  rude  form  in  Homer  ; 
connected  with  Metempsychosis  in  Orpheus,  Py- 
thagoras, and  Pherecydes  ;  assuming  a  new  form  in 
Sophocles  and  Pindar,  and  becoming  a  doctrine  fix- 
ed and  settled  with  Socrates,  Plato,  and  his  school 
in  general.  In  Homer  the  future  state  is  a  joyless 
existence.  Achilles  would  rather  be  king  of  earthly 
men  for  a  day,  than  of  spirits  forever.  Like  the 
future  state  of  the  Jews,  it  offers  no  motive,  and 
presents  no  terror.  The  shades  of  the  weary  came 
together  from  all    lands    into    their  dim    sojourn. 

foreign  countries,  which  furnish  the  facts  in  abundance.  The  works  of 
Meiners,  Constant,  and  Lafitau  are  themselves  but  a  compilation  from 
these  sources. 

'  Lib.  II.  Chap.  123.     See  Creutzer's  note,  in  Bahr's  edition. 

*  The  date  of  all  things  is  uncertain  in  the  East.  I  cannot  pretend  to 
chronological  accuracy,  but  see  Asiatic  Researches,  Vol.  V.  p.  3G0.  VII. 
310,  VIII.  448,  et  seq.  Priestley,  ubi  sup.  §  XXIII.  Ritter,  Vol.  I.  p. 
132. 

'  Stanley's  History  of  Philosophy,  Part  XIII.  Sect.  II.  Chap.  X. 
Hyde,  ubi  supra. 


126  OPINION  OF  THE  HEATHEN 

Enemies  forgot  their  strife;  but  friends  were  joined.^ 
The  present  life  is  obscurely  renewed  in  the  next 
world.  But  the  more  especial  friends  or  foes  of 
the  Gods  are  raised  to  honor,  or  condemned  to 
shame.  The  transmigration  of  souls  is  perhaps 
derived  from  the  wondrous  mutation  in  the  vegeta- 
ble and  animal  world,  where  an  acorn  unswathed 
becomes  ah  oak,  and  an  egg  discloses  an  eagle.^ 

In  Hesiod,  the  condition  of  the  dead  is  improved 
with  the  advance  of  the  nation.  The  good  have  a 
place  in  the  isles  of  the  blest.^  In  the  later  poets, 
the  doctrine  rises  still  higher,  while  the  form  is  not 
always  definite.'^  Pindar  celebrates  the  condition 
of  the  Good  in  the  next  life.  It  is  a  state  where 
the  righteous  are  rewarded  and  the  wicked  punish- 
ed, until  sin  is  consumed  from  their  nature,  when 
they  come  to  the  divine  abode.* 

1  See  Iliad,  XXIII.  et  seq.  et  al.  Odyss.  XI.  passim,  and  Heyne,  Ex- 
cursus on  Iliad,  XXIIl.  71  and  104,  Vol.  VIII.  p.  368,  et  seq.  See  the 
eimilar  views  of  the  North  American  Indians,  in  Schoolcraft's  Algic  Re- 
searches. Wachsmuth,  Vol.  II.  Part  II.  p.  106,  244,  290.  Potter,  Anti- 
quities.     Gorre's  Mythengeschichte,  passim. 

2  See  Xenophon,  Memorab.  ed.  Schneider,  1829,  Lib.  I.  Chap.  III. 
§  7,  and  the  Note  of  Bornemann. 

'•'  Opera  et  Dies,  vs.  160,  etseq.,  and  the  Scholia  in  Poet.  Min.  ed.  Gais- 
ford.  Vol.  II.  p.  142,  et  seq. 

*  See  the  Gnomic  poets  in  general,  for  the  moral  views  of  life  ;  for 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  Simonides,  Frag.  XXX.  (XXXIII.)  Tyr- 
tacus  III.  In  Gaisford,  Vol.  III.  p.  160,242.  See  Orpheus,  as  cited  by 
Lobeck,  Aglaoph.  p.  950.  See  Cudworth,  Chap.  I.  §  21,22;  and  Mo- 
sheim  in  loc.  See  the  indifferent  book  of  Priestley,  Heathen  Philo- 
sophy, Part  1.  §111.  V.  ;  Part  II.  §  III.  V. ;  also  page  125,  et  seq.  197, 
et  seq.  265,  et  seq. 

*  Olymp.  II.  vs.  104,  et  seq.  (57-92,  in  Dissen.)  See  Cowley's  wild  im- 
itation in  hisPindarique  Odes,  Lond.  1720,  Vol.  II.  p.  160,  et  seq.  See  sim- 
ilar thoughts  in  Propertius,  Lib.  III.  39, et  seq  ,  and  Tibullus,  Eleg  III.  58. 


RESPECTING  THE  FUTURE  STATE.         127 

To  pass  from  the  Po(}ts  to  the  Pliilosophcrs ;  the 
Immortality  of  the  Soul  was  taught  continually, 
from  Pherecydes  to  Plotinus.  There  were  those 
who  doubted,  and  some  that  denied  ;  yet  it  was 
defended  by  all  the  greatest  philosophers,  Thales, 
Pythagoras,  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Cicero, 
Plutarch,  Epictetus,^  and  by  the  most  influential 
schools.  No  doubt  it  was  often  connected  with 
absurd  notions,  in  jest  or  earnest.  But  when  or 
where  has  its  fate   been  different  ?    Bishop  War- 

Virgil,  ^Eneid,  VI.  See  also  Pindar's  Fragment.  II.  Vol.  III.  p.  34,  ed. 
Heyne,  Leips.  1S17.  Frag.  III.  p.  36;  Frag.  I.  p.  31,  et  seq. ;  and  the 
notes  of  Dissen,  in  his  edition  of  Pindar,  Vol.  II.  p.  643,  et  seq. ;  and 
Lobeck,  ubi  sup.  See,  who  will,  a  treatise  in  the  Acta  Eruditorum  for 
August,  1722,  de  Statu  Animce  separatee  post  mortem,  &c. 

'  Cicero,  Tusc.  Lib.  I.  Chap.  XVI.,  says  Pherecydes  was  the  first  who 
taught  this  doctrine.  See  also  Diogenes  Laert.  Thales,  Lib.  I.  §  43,  p.  27, 
et  seq.,  and  Plutarch,  De  Placitis.  Phil.  Lib.  IV.  Ch.  II.-VII.  Opp  Vol. 
II.  p.  898,  et  seq.  It  has  been  thought  doubtful  that  Aristotle  believed  in 
immortality,  and  perhaps  it  is  not  easy  to  prove  this  point.  See  De  AnL- 
ma.  III.  5;  But  compare  Ethic.  Nicom.  Lib,  III.  Chap.  VI.  which  denies 
it.  See  again  De  Anima,  II.  2.  De  Gen.  Anim.  II.  4.  Plato  teaches 
immortality  with  the  greatest  clearness.  See  the  Pliwdo,  passim.  Apo- 
log.  Laws,  (if  they  are  genuine,)  Lib.  X.  XII.  Epinorais,  Timaeus,  Rep. 
X.  p.  117.  Plato  makes  the  essence  of  man  purely  spiritual :  Tim.  p.  69, 
C.  et  seq.  72,  D.  etseq.  Rep.  IV.  p.  431.  A.  He  was  opposed  to  the 
Materialists;  Soph.  p.  246.  A.  However,  he  did  not  condemn  the  body. 
His  argument  in  favor  of  immortality,  like  many  later  arguments  on  the 
same  theme,  creates  more  questions  than  it  answers.  The  form  of  the 
doctrine,  its  connection  with  prci'xistence  and  transmigration,  like  many 
doctrines  still  popularly  connected  with  it,  serve  only  to  disfigure  the 
doctrine  itself,  and  bring  it  into  reproach.  The  opinion  of  Cicero  is  so 
well  known,  that  it  is  almost  superfluous  to  cite  passages  ;  but  see  Tusc. 
X.  Lib.  I.  De  Senectute,  Chap.  XXL,  et  seq.  Somnium  Scipionis  et 
al.  See  Seneca,  De  Ira,  I.  3.  Consolatio  ad  Helv.  Chap.  VI.  De  Vita 
beata,  Chap.  XXXII.  Ep.  50,  102,117.  Sometimes  he  speaks  decid- 
edly, at  other  times  with  doubt.  See  Lipsius  Physiol.  Stoic.  Lib.  III. 
Diss.  VIII.-XIX.  See  Locke,  Essay,  Book  IV.  Chap.  III.,  and  Letters 
to  Bishop  of  Worcester. 


128  OPllNION  OF  THE  HEATHEJS 

burton  thinks  it  no  part  of  natural  Religion ;  Dod- 
well  thinks  immortality  is  only  coextensive  with 
Christian  baptism,  and  is  superinduced  upon  the 
mortal  soul  by  that  dispensation  of  water.  Could 
a  Heathen  be  more  absurd  ?  If  the  popular  doc- 
trine of  the  Christian  church,  which  dooms  the  mass 
of  men  to  endless  misery,  be  true,  then  it  is  a  mis- 
fortune to  the  race.  The  wisest  of  the  Heathen 
taueht  such  a  dooma  as  little  as  did  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth.  We  must  always  separate  the  doctrine  from 
its  proof  and  its  form  ;  the  latter  is  often  imperfect 
while  the  doctrine  is  true. 

Since  the  time  of  Bishop  Warburton,  it  has  been 
common  to  deny  that  the  Heathen  were  acquainted 
with  this  doctrine.^  "  It  was  one  guess  among 
many,"  has  often  been  said.  But  a  man  even 
slightly  acquainted  with  ancient  thought  and  life, 
knows  it  is  not  so.  God  has  not  made  truth  so 
hard  to  come  at,  that  the  world  of  men  continued 
four  thousand  years  in  ignorance  of  a  future  life. 
Before  the  time  above  named,  it  was  taught  by 
scholars,  even  scholars  of  the  clerical  order,  that 
the  doctrine  was  well  known  to  the  Heathen.  Cud- 
worth  and  More,  Wilkins,  Taylor  and  Wollaston, 


'  Warburton  has  the  merit  of  framing  an  hypothesis  so  completely 
original  that  no  one  (except  Bishop  Hnrd)  has  ever  shared  it  in  full  with 
him.  Part  of  his  singular  theory  is  this :  A  belief  in  a  future  state  wa? 
found  necessary,  in  Heathen  countries,  to  keep  the  subjects  in  order ;  the 
philosophers  and  priests  got  up  a  doctrine  for  that  purpose,  teaching  that 
the  soul  was  immortal,  but  not  believing  a  word  of  it.  Moses,  xoho  be- 
lieved the  doctrine,  yet  never  taught  it,  hut  controlled  the  people  by  means  of 
his  inspiration,  and  the  perfect  Law. 


RESPECTING  THE  FUTURE  STATE.        129 

to  mention  only  the  most  obvious  names,  bear  testi- 
mony to  the  fact.^ 

To  sum  up  in  a  few  words  the  history  of  this 
doctrine,  both  among  Jews  and  Gentiles,  it  seems 
that  rude  nations,  like  the  Celts  and  the  Sarma- 
tians,  clung  instinctively  to  the  sentiment  of  im- 
mortality. That  the  doctrine  was  well  known  to 
the  pliilosoj)hers,  and  commonly  accepted  ;  that 
some  doubted,  and  some  denied  it  altogether.  A 
few  had  reached  an  eminence  in  philosophy,  and 
could  demonstrate  the  proposition,  and  satisfy  their 
logical  doubt,  thus  reconciling  the  instinctive  and 
reflective  faculty.  From  the  first  book  of  Moses, 
to  the  last  of  Maccabees  ;  from  Homer  to  Cicero, 
there  is  a  great  change  in  the  form  of  the  doctrine. 
All  other  forms  also  had  changed. 

But  how  far  was  the  doctrine  diffused  among  the 
people  ?  We  can  tell  but  faintly  from  history. 
But  Avhat  nature  demands  and  Providence  affords, 
lingers  longest  in  the  bosom  of  the  mass  of  men. 


'  See  Cudworth  and  More,  passim.  Wilkins,  Principles  and  Duties  of 
Natural  Religion,  &c.,  Book  I.  Ch.  XI.  See  also  Ch.  IV.  and  VIII. 
Taylor's  Sermon,  preached  at  the  Funeral  of  that  worthy  Knight,  Sir 
George  Dalston,  &c.  Wollaston,  Religion  of  Nature,  Sect.  IX.  It 
would  be  eas}'  to  cite  passages  from  the  early  Christians,  testifying  to  the 
truth  possessed  by  the  Heatliens  B.  C.  I  will  mention  but  one  from 
Minucius  Felix.  "  A  man  might  judge  either  that  the  present  Christians 
are  philosophers,  or  else  that  the  old  philosophers  were  Christians."  See 
likewise  Brougham's  Discourse  on  Natural  Theology.  Note  VI. -IX. 
in  Appendix.  Polybius,  ubi  supra,  VI.  Ch.  54-55,  thinks  the  legisla- 
tors got  up  the  doctrine,  with  no  faith  in  it,  except  a  general  belief  it 
would  make  men  submissive.  See  Timeeus  De  Anima  Mundi. 
17 


130  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BELIEF 

The  doctrine  was  not  strange  to  the  fishermen  of 
Galilee.  Was  it  more  so  to  the  peasants  of  Greece  ?'• 
The  early  Apologists  of  Christianity  found  no  diffi- 
culty from  the  unity  of  God,  and  the  immortality  of 
the  soul ;  both  are  presupposed  by  Jesus  and  Paul. 
How  far  it  moved  men  in  common  life  can  be  told 
neither  from  the  courtiers  of  Pagan  Caesar  Augus- 
tus, nor  from  those  of  Christian  Louis  the  Well-be- 
loved. A  Roman,  and  a  Christian  Pontiff —  how 
much  are  they  moved  by  the  tardy  terrors  of  future 
judgment?-  Juvenal  could  repeat  his  biting  sneer 
in  more  ages  than  one.^  Was  the  argument  of  the 
Pagan  philosopher  unsatisfactory  ?  It  was  never 
otherwise.  Mr.  Strauss  declares  it  has  not  yet 
been  demonstrated ;  Mr.  Locke  that  it  cannot 
be  proved.  The  sentiment  does  its  work  with  few 
words.  Who. shall  demonstrate  for  us  a  fact  of 
consciousness,  or  prove  our  personal  identity  ?  But 
the  doctrine  was  connected  with  gross  errors,  — 
preexistence  and  metempsychosis.  Has  the  doc- 
trine ever  been  free  of  such  connection  ?  In  more 
than  a  single  historical  case  ?  It  does  not  appear. 
The  doctrine  of  inherited  sin,  of  depravity  born  in 
the  bones  of  men  ;  the  notion  that  the  mass  of  men 
are  doomed  by  the  God  of  Mercy  to  eternal  woe  — 


'  The  resurrection  of  the  body,  seerns  to  have  been  the  doctrine  that 
offended  Paul's  hearers  at  Athens;  that  of  immortality  alone  was  well 
known  to  the  Stoics  (some  of  whom  believed  it)  and  the  Epicureans,  who 
rejected  it.     Acts,  XVIL  IG,  et  seq.     See  Wetstein  in  loc. 

2  See  Horace,  Epist.  Lib.  I.  Ep.  XVL  Juvenal,  Satir.  XIIL  Per- 
sius,  Satir.  IL     How  far  do  these  express  the  popular  sentiment  ? 

3  Satir.  H.  149,  et  seq. 


IN   A  FUTURE  STATE  131 

immortal  onlj  to  be  wretched  —  is  not  a  stran«;c 
thing,  in  the  nineteenth  centurj,  though  uniicard  of 
in  the  first.  Modern  savages  have  foul  notions  of 
God  ;  ancient  civilization  has  sins  enough  on  its 
head,  hideous  sins  unknown  even  in  our  day,  for 
the  world  has  been  worse,  but  both  are  free  from 
such  a  stain.' 

'  Leclerc,  ubi  sup.  gives  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  state  of  the  world 
at  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  period,  perhaps  the  most  faithful 
that  has  been  given,  of  manners  and  opinions.  The  popular  in^^thology 
was  in  about  the  same  estimation  among  cultivated  men,  as  the  popular 
theology  at  the  present  time  with  men  of  piety  and  good  sense.  Leroux 
de  IHumanite,  Vol.  I.,  p.  302,  et  seq.,  makes  some  observations,  on  this 
doctrine  among  the  ancients,  not  without  interest. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    INFLUENCE    OF    THE    RELIGIOUS    SENTIMENT    ON   LIFE, 

Man  is  not  a  being  of  isolated  faculties,  which 
act  independently.  The  religious,  like  each  other 
element  in  us,  acts  jointly  with  other  powers. 
Its  action  therefore  is  helped  or  hindered  by  them. 
The  Idea  of  Religion  is  only  realized  by  an  harmo- 
nious action  of  all  the  faculties,  the  intellectual,  the 
moral.  Yet  the  religious  sentiment  must  act,  more 
or  less,  though  the  understanding  be  not  cultivated, 
and  the  moral  elements  sleep  in  Egyptian  -night ; 
in  connection  therefore  with  Wisdom,  or  Folly, 
with  Hope  or  Fear,  with  Love  or  Hate.  Now  in 
all  periods  of  human  history  Religion  demands 
something  of  her  votaries.  The  ruder  their  condi- 
tion, the  more  capricious  and  unreasonable  is  the 
demand.  Though  Religion  itself  be  ever  the  same, 
the  form  of  its  expression  varies  with  man's  intel- 
lectual and  moral  state.  Its  influence  on  life  may 
be  considered  under  its  three  different  manifesta- 
tions. 


SUPERSTITION. 


133 


I.   Of  Superstition. 

Combining  with  ignorance  and  Fear,  the  reli- 
gious sentiment  leads  to  Superstition.  This  is  the 
vilification  and  debasement  of  man.  It  may  be  de- 
fined as  Fear  before  God.  Plutarch,  though 
himself  religious,  pronounced  it  worse  than  Athe- 
ism. But  the  latter  cannot  exist  to  the  same  ex- 
tent ;  is  never  an  active  principle.  Superstition 
is  a  morbid  state  of  human  nature,  where  the  con- 
ditions of  the  religious  sentiment  are  not  fulfilled; 
where  its  functions  are  impeded  and  counteracted. 
But  it  must  act,  as  the  heart  beats  in  the  frenzy  of 
a  fever.  It  has  been  said  with  truth,  "  Perfect  love 
casts  out  fear."  The  converse  is  quite  as  true. 
Perfect  fear  casts  out  Love.  The  superstitious 
man  begins  by  fearing  God,  not  loving  him.  He 
goes  on,  like  a  timid  boy  in  the  darkness,  by  pro- 
jecting his  own  conceptions  out  of  himself;  con- 
juring up  a  phantom  he  calls  his  God;  a  Deity 
capricious,  cruel,  revengeful,  lying  in  wait  for  the 
unwary  ;  a  God  ugly,  morose,  and  only  to  be  feared. 
He  ends  by  paying  a  service  meet  for  such  a  God, 
the  service  of  Horror  and  Fear.  Each  man's  con- 
ception of  God  is,  his  conception  of  a  man  carried 
out  to  infinity  ;  a  human  personality  added  to  the 
pure  idea.  This  conception  therefore  varies  as 
the  men  who  form  it  vary.  It  is  the  index  of  their 
Soul.  The  superstitious  man  projects  out  of  him- 
self a  creation  begotten  of  his  Folly  and  his  Fear; 
calls  the  furious  phantom  God,  Moloch,  Jehovah ; 


134  THE  UNNATURAL  SACRIFICES 

then  attempts  to  please  the  capricious  Being  he 
has  conjured  up.  To  do  this,  the  demands  his  Su-' 
perstition  makes  are  not  to  keep  the  laws  which 
the  one  God  wrote  on  the  walls  of  man's  being  ; 
but  to  do  arbitrary  acts  which  this  fancied  God  de- 
mands. He  must  give  up  to  the  deity  what  is 
dearest  to  himself.  Hence  the  savage  offers  a  sa- 
crifice of  favorite  articles  of  food  ;  the  first  fruits  of 
the  chase,  or  agriculture  ;  weapons  of  war  which 
have  done  signal  service  ;  the  nobler  animals  ;  the 
skins  of  rare  beasts.  He  conceives  the  anger  of  his 
God  may  be  soothed  like  man's  excited  frame,  by 
libations,  incense,  the  smoke  of  plants,  the  steam  of 
a  sacrifice. 

Again,  the  superstitious  man  would  appease  his 
God,  by  unnatural  personal  service.  He  under- 
takes an  enterprize,  almost  impossible,  and  suc- 
ceeds, for  the  fire  of  his  purpose  subdues  and  sof- 
tens the  rock  that  opposes  him.  He  submits  to 
painful  privation  of  food,  rest,  clothing  ;  leads  a  life 
of  solitude ;  wears  a  comfortless  dress,  that  girds 
and  frets  the  very  flesh ;  stands  in  a  painful  posi- 
tion ;  shuts  himself  in  a  dungeon  ;  lives  in  a  cave ; 
stands  on  a  pillar's  top  ;  goes  unshorn  and  filthy. 
He  exposes  himself  to  be  scorched  by  the  sun,  and 
frozen  by  the  frost.  He  lacerates  his  flesh  ;  punc- 
tures his  skin  to  receive  sacred  figures  of  the  Gods. 
He  mutilates  his  body,  cutting  oft'  the  most  useful 
or  most  sacred  members.  He  sacrifices  his  cattle, 
his  enemies,  his  children  ;  defiles  the  sacred  temple 
of  his  body ;    destroys  his  mortal  life  to  serve  his 


OF  THE  SUPERSTITIOUS  MAN.  135 

God.  In  a  state  more  refined,  Superstition  de- 
mands abstinence  from  all  the  sensual  goods  of  life. 
Its  present  pleasures  are  a  godless  thing.  The 
flesh  is  damned.  To  serve  God  is  to  mortify  the 
appetites  God  gave.  Then  the  superstitious  man 
abstains  from  comfortable  food,  clothing,  and  shel- 
ter ;  comes  neither  eating  nor  drinking,  watches 
all  night  absorbed  in  holy  vigils.  The  man  of  God 
must  be  thin  and  spare.  Bernard  has  but  to  show 
his  neck,  fleshless  and  scraggy,  to  be  confessed  a 
mighty  saint.  Above  all,  he  must  abstain  from 
marriage.  The  Devil  lurks  under  the  bridal  rose. 
The  vow  of  the  celibate  can  send  him  howling  back 
to  hell.  The  smothered  volcano  is  grateful  to  God. 
Then  comes  the  assumption  of  arbitrary  vows  ;  the 
performance  of  pilgrimages  to  distant  places,  thinly 
clad  and  barefoot ;  the  repetition  of  prayers,  not  as 
a  delight,  spontaneously  poured  out,  but  as  a  pen- 
ance, or  work  of  supererogation.  In  this  stage, 
Superstition  builds  convents,  monasteries,  sends  An- 
thony to  his  dwelling  in  the  desert ;  it  founds  orders 
of  Mendicants,  Rechabites,  Nazarites,  Encraiites, 
Pilgrims,  Flagellants  and  similar  Moss-troopers  of 
Religion,  whom  Heaven  yet  turns  to  good  account. 
This  is  the  Superstition  of  the  flesh.  It  promises 
the  favor  of  its  God  on  condition  of  these  most  use- 
less and  arbitrary  acts.  It  dwells  on  the  absurdest 
of  externals. 

However,  in  a  later  day,  it  goes  to  still  more 
subtle  refinements.  The  man  does  not  mutilate 
his  body,  nor  give  up  the  most  sacred  of  his  mate- 


136  SACRIFICES  OF  THE  SUPERSTITIOUS. 

rial  possessions.  That  was  the  Superstition  of 
savage  life.  But  he  mutilates  his  soul;  gives  up- 
the  most  sacred  of  his  spiritual  treasures.  This  is 
the  Superstition  of  refined  life.  Here  the  man  is 
read  J  to  forego  R,eason,  Conscience  and  Love, 
God's  most  precious  gifts  ;  the  noblest  attributes  of 
man;  the  tie  that  softly  joins  him  to  the  eternal 
world.  He  will  think  against  Reason  ;  decide 
against  Conscience";  act  against  Love,  because  he 
dreams  the  God  of  Reason,  Conscience  and  Love 
demands  it.  It  is  a  slight  thing  to  hack  and  muti- 
late the  body,  though  it  be  the  fairest  temple  God 
ever  made,  and  to  mar  its  completeness  a  sin.  But 
to  dismember  the  soul,  the  very  image  of  God  ;  to 
lop  off  most  sacred  affections ;  to  call  Reason  a 
Liar,  Conscience  a  devil's-oracle,  and  cast  Love 
clean  out  from  the  heart,  this  is  the  last  triumph  of 
Superstition  ;  but  one  often  witnessed,  in  all  three 
forms  of  Religion,  Fetichism,  Polytheism,  Mono- 
theism ;  in  all  ages  before  Christ ;  in  all  ages  after 
Christ.  This  is  the  Superstition  of  the  Soul.  The 
one  might  be  Superstition  of  the  Hero ;  this  is  the 
Superstition  of  the  Pharisee. 

A  man  rude  in  spirit  must  have  a  rude  conception 
of  God.  He  thinks  the  Deity  like  himself.  If  a 
Buffiilo  have  a  religion,  his  conception  of  Deity 
would  be  a  Buffalo,  fairer  limbed,  stronger  and 
swifter  than  himself,  grazing  in  the  fairest  meadows 
of  Heaven.  If  he  were  superstitious,  his  service 
would  consist  in  offerings  of  grass,  of  water,  of  salt ; 
perhaps  in  abstinence  from  the  pleasures,  comforts. 


NATURAL  SACRIFICE.  137 

necessiiios  of  a  bison's  life.  His  devil  also  would 
be  a  Buffalo,  but  of  anotlier  color,  lean,  vicious  and 
ugly.  Now  when  a  man  has  these  rude  concep- 
tions, inseparable  from  a  rude  state,  offerings  and 
sacrifice  are  natural.  When  they  come  spontaneous, 
as  the  expression  of  a  grateful  or  a  penitent  heart ; 
the  seal  of  a  resolution ;  the  sign  of  J'aitli,  Hope 
and  Love,  as  an  outward  symbol  which  strengthens 
the  indwelling  sentiment  —  the  sacrifice  is  pleasant 
and  may  be  beautiful.  The  child  who  saw  God  in 
the  swelling  and  rounded  clouds  of  a  June  day,  and 
left  on  a  rock  the  ribbon-grass  and  garden  roses  as 
mute  symbols  of  gratitude  to  the  Great  Spirit  who 
poured  out  the  voluptuous  season  ;  the  ancient 
pagan  who  bowed  prone  to  the  dust,  in  homage,  as 
the  sun  looked  out  from  the  windows  of  morning, 
or  offered  the  smoke  of  incense  at  nightfall  in  grati- 
tude for  the  day,  or  kissed  his  hand  to  the  moon, 
thankful  for  that  spectacle  of  loveliness  passing 
above  him :  the  man  who  with  reverent  thankfulness 
or  penitence,  ofl'ers  a  sacrifice  of  joy  or  grief,  to 
express  what  words  too  poorly  tell ;  he  is  no  idol- 
ater, but  Nature's  simple  child.  We  rejoice  in  self- 
denial  for  a  father,  a  son,  a  friend.  Love  and  every 
strong  emotion  has  its  sacrifice.  It  is  rooted  deep 
in  the  heart  of  man.  God  needs  nothing.  He 
cannot  receive  ;  yet  man  needs  to  give.  But  if 
these  things  are  done,  as  substitutes  for  holiness,  as 
causes  and  not  mere  signs  of  reconciliation  with 
God ;  as  means  to  coax  and  Avhecdle  the  Deity  and 
bribe  the  All-Powerful,  it  is  Superstition,  rank  and 

18 


138  ABRAHAM  AND  AGAMEMNON. 

odious.  Examples  enough  of  this  are  found  in  all 
ao-es.  To  take  two  of  the  most  celebrated  cases,' 
one  from  the  Hebrews,  the  other  from  a  Heathen 
people.  Abraham  would  sacrifice  his  son  to  Jeho- 
vah, who  demanded  that  offering,^  Agamemnon  his 
daughter  to  angry  Diana.  But  a  Deity  kindly  in- 
terferes in  both  cases.  The  Angel  of  Jehovah  res- 
cues Isaac  from  the  remorseless  knife  ;  a  ram  is 
found  for  a  sacrifice.  Diana  delivers  the  daughter 
of  Agamemnon  and  leaves  a  hind  in  her  place.  No 
one  doubts  the  latter  is  a  case  of  superstition  most 
ghastly  and  terrible.  A  father  murder  his  own  child 
—  a  human  sacrifice  to  the  Lord  of  Life!  It  is 
rebellion  against  Conscience,  Reason,  Affection  ; 
treason  against  God,  though  Calchas,  the  anointed 
minister,  declared  it  the  will  of  Heaven.  There  is 
an  older  than  Calchas  who  says,  It  is  a  Lie.  He 
that  defends  the  former  patriarch,  counting  it  a 
blameless  and  beautiful  act  of  piety  and  faith  per- 
formed at  the  command  of  God  —  what  shall  be 
said  of  him  ?  He  proves  the  worm  of  Superstition 
is  not  yet  dead,  nor  its  fire  quenched,  and  leads 
weak  men  to  ask,  Which  then  has  most  of  Religion, 
the  Christian,  who  justifies  Abraham,  or  the  Pagan 

>  Gen.  XXII.  1-14.  The  conjectures  of  the  learned  about  this  mythi- 
cal legend,  which  may  have  some  fact  at  its  foundation,  are  numerous, 
and  some  of  them  remarkable  for  their  ingenuity.  Some  one  supposes 
that  Abraham  was  tempted  by  the  Elohim  but  Jehovah  prevents  the 
sacrifice.  It  is  easy  to  find  other  Heathen  parallels,  that  of  Cronus  in 
Eusebius,  P.  E.I.  10;  of  Aristodemns,  of  which  Pausanias  tells  a  curious 
story,  IV.  9.  See  the  case  of  Helena  and  Valeria  Luperca,  who  were  both 
miraculously  saved  from  sacrifice,  in  Plutarch,  Paralel.  Opp.Vol.  II.  p.  314. 


SUPERSTITIOJN  OF  OUR  TIME.  139 

Greeks,  who  eondemned  Agamemnon  ?  He  leads 
weak  men  to  ask  ;  the  strong  make  no  question  of 
so  plain  a  matter. 

But  why  go  back  to  Patriarchs  at  Aulis  or  Mo- 
riali;  do  we  not  live  in  New  England  and  the  nine- 
teenth cenrury  ?  Have  the  footsteps  of  Superstition 
been  effaced  from  our  land  ?  Our  books  of  theolo- 
gy are  full  thereof ;  our  churches  and  homes  not 
empty  of  it.  When  a  man  fears  God  more  than 
he  loves  him  ;  when  he  will  forsake  Reason,  Con- 
science, Love  —  the  still  small  voice  of  God  in  the 
heart  —  for  any  of  the  legion  voices  of  Authority, 
Tradition,  Expediency,  which  come  of  Ignorance, 
Selfishness  and  Sin  ;  whenever  he  hopes  by  a  poor 
prayer,  or  a  listless  attendance  at  church,  or  an  aus- 
tere observance  of  Sabbath  and  Fast-days,  a  compli- 
ance with  forms  ;  when  he  hopes  by  professing  with 
his  tongue  the  doctrine  he  cannot  believe  in  his 
heart,  to  atone  for  wicked  actions,  wrong  thoughts, 
unholy  feelings,  a  six-days'  life  of  meanness,  de- 
ception, rottenness  and  sin,  —  then  is  he  supersti- 
tious. Are  there  no  fires  but  those  of  Moloch  ;  no 
idols  of  printed  paper,  and  spoken  wind  ?  No  false 
worship  but  bowing  the  knee  to  Baal,  Adonis,  Pri- 
apus,  Cybele  ?  Superstition  changes  its  fotins,  not 
its  substance.  If  he  were  superstitious  who  in 
days  of  ignorance  but  made  his  son's  body  pass 
through  the  fire  to  his  God,  what  shall  be  said  of 
them  in  an  age  of  light,  who  systematically  degrade 
the  fairest  gifts  of  man,  God's  dearest  benefaction  ; 
who  make  life  darkness,  death  despair,  the  world  a 


140  FANATICISM. 

desert,  man  a  worm,  nothing  but  a  worm,  and  God 
an  uglj  fiend,  who  made  the  mass  of  men  for  utter 
wretchedness,  death  and  eternal  hel!  ?  Alas  for 
them.  They  are  blind  and  see  not.  They  lie  down 
in  their  folly.     Let  Charity  cover  them  up. 

II.  Of  Fanaticism. 
There  is  another  morbid  state  of  the  religious  sen- 
timent. It  consists  in  its  union  with  Hatred  and 
other  malignant  elements  of  man.  Here  it  leads  to 
Fanaticism.  As  the  essence  of  Superstition  is  Fear 
coupled  with  religious  feeling ;  so  the  essence  of 
Fanaticism  is  Malice  mingling  with  that  sentiment. 
It  may  be  called  Hatred  before  God.  The  Super- 
stitious man  fears  lest  God  hate  him  ;  the  Fanatic 
thinks  he  hates  not.  him  but  his  enemies.  Is  the 
Fanatic  a  Jew  ?  —  the  Gentiles  are  hateful  to  Jeho- 
vah. A  Mahometan  ?  —  all  are  infidel  dogs  who  do 
not  bow  to  the  prophet,  their  end  is  destruction.  Is 
he  a  Christian?  —  he  counts  all  others  as  Heathen 
whom  God  will  damn;  of  this  or  that  sect  —  he 
condemns  all  the  rest  for  their  belief,  let  their  life 
be  divine  as  the  prayer  of  a  saint.  Out  of  his  sel- 
fish passion  he  creates  him  a  God  ;  breathes  into  it 
the  breath  of  his  Hatred  ;  he  worships  and  prays 
to  it,  and  says  "  Deliver  me,  for  thou  art  my  God." 
Then  he  feels  —  so  he  fancies  —  inspiration  to  visit 
his  foes  with  divine  vengeance.  He  can  curse  and 
smite  them  in  the  name  of  his  God.  It  is  the  sword 
of  the  Lord,  and  the  fire  of  the  Most  High  that 
drinks  up  the  blood  and  stifles  the  groan  of  the 
wretched. 


POWER  OF  FANATICISM.  141 

Like  SiipcM-stition,  it  is  found  in  all  ages  of  the 
world.  It  is  the  insanity  of  mankind.  As  the 
richest  soils  grow  weij^htiest  harvests,  or  most  nox- 
ious weeds  and  poisons  the  most  baneful  ;  as  the 
strongest  bodies  take  disease  the  most  sor(;ly,  so  the 
deepest  natures,  the  highest  forms  of  religion,  when 
once  infected  with  this  leprosy,  go  to  the  wildest 
excess  of  desperation.  Thus  the  fanaticism  of  wor- 
shipers of  one  God  has  no  parallel,  among  idolaters 
and  polytheists.  There  is  a  point  in  human  nature 
where  moral  distinctions  do  not  appear,  as  on  the 
earth  there  are  spots  where  the  compass  will  not 
traverse,  and  dens  where  the  sun  never  shines. 
This  fact  is  little  dwelt  on  by  philosophers  ;  still  it 
is  a  fact.  Seen  from  this  point.  Right  and  Wrong 
lose  their  distinctive  character  and  run  into  each 
other.  Good  seems  Evil  and  Evil  Good,  or  both 
are  the  same.  The  sophistry  of  the  Understanding 
sometimes  leagues  with  appetite  and  gradually  en- 
tices the  thoughtless  into  this  pit.  The  Antinomian 
of  all  times,  turns  in  thither,  to  increase  his  faitli 
and  diminish  his  works.  It  is  the  very  cave  of 
Trophonius;  he  that  enters  loses  his  manhood  and 
walks  backward  as  he  returns  ;  his  soul,  so  filled 
with  God,  ^^'hatever  the  flesh  does  cannot  be  wrong, 
though  it  break  all  laws,  human  and  divine.  The 
fanatic  dwells  continually  on  this  point ;  God  de- 
mands of  him  to  persecute  his  foes.  The  thought 
troubles  him  by  day,  and  stares  on  him  as  a  spectre 
at  night.  God  or  his  angel,  appear  to  his  crazed 
fancy  and  bid  him  to  the  ^vork  with  promise  of  re- 


142  THE  WORK  OF  THE  FANATICS. 

wards,  or  spur  him  with  a  curse.  Then  there  is  no 
lie  too  mahgnant  for  him  to  invent  and  utter  ;  no 
curse  too  awful  for  him  to  imprecate  ;  no  refinement 
of  torture  too  cruel  or  exquisitely  rending  for  his 
fancy  to  devise,  his  malice  to  inflict ;  Nature  is 
teased  for  new  tortures  ;  Art  is  racked  to  extort 
fresh  engines  of  cruelty.  As  the  jaded  Roman 
oflered  a  reward  for  the  invention  of  a  new  pleasure, 
so  the  fanatic  would  renounce  Heaven  could  he  give 
an  added  pang  to  hell. 

Men  of  this  character  have  played  so  great  a 
part  in  the  world's  history,  they  must  not  be  passed 
over  in  silence.  Tiie  ashes  of  the  innocents  they 
have  burned,  are  sown  broad-cast  and  abundant  in 
all  lands.  The  earth  is  quick  with  this  living  dust. 
The  blood  of  prophets,  and  saviours  they  have  shed 
still  cries  for  justice.  The  Canaanites,  the  Jews, 
the  Saracen,  the  Christian,  Polytheist  and  Idolater, 
New  Zealand  and  New  England  are  guilty  of  this. 
Let  the  voice  of  the  Heretic  speak  from  the  dun- 
geon-racks of  the  Inquisition  ;  that  of  the  "  true 
believer"  from  the  scaffolds  of  Elizabeth  —  most 
Christian  Queen  ;  let  the  voices  of  the  murdered 
come  up  from  the  squares  of  Paris,  the  plains  of 
the  Low  Countries,  from  the  streets  of  Antioch, 
Byzantium,  Jerusalem,  Alexandria,  Damascus, 
Rome,  Mexico  ;  from  the  wheels,  racks  and  gib- 
bets of  the  world ;  let  the  men  who  died  in  re- 
ligious wars,  always  the  bloodiest  and  most  re- 
morseless ;  the  women,  whom  nothing  could  save 
from  a  fate  yet  more  awful ;  the  babes,  newly  born, 


THE  FANATICISM  OF  OUR  TIME.  143 

who  perished  in  the  sack  and  conflagration  of  idola- 
trous and  heretical  citi(>s,  when  lor  the  sake  of  Re- 
ligion men  violated  its  every  precejjt,  and  in  the 
name  of  God  broke  down  his  Law,  and  trampled 
his  image  into  bloody  dust ;  —  let  all  these  speak, 
to  admonish,  and  to  blame. 

But  it  is  not  well  to  rest  on  general  terms  alone. 
Paul  had  no  little  fanaticism,  when  he  persecuted 
the  Christians  ;  kept  the  garments  of  men  who 
stoned  Stephen.  JMoses  had  much  of  it,  if  as  the 
story  goes,  he  commanded  the  extirpation  of  na- 
tions of  idolaters,  millions  of  men,  virtuous  as  the 
Jews ;  Joshua,  Samuel,  David,  had  much  of  it,  and 
executed  schemes  bloody  as  a  murderer's  most  san- 
guine dream.  -  It  has  been  both  the  foe  and  the 
auxiliary  of  the  Christian  church.  There  is  a  long 
line  of  Fanatics,  extending  from  the  time  of  Justin, 
reaching  from  century  to  century,  marching  on  from 
age  to  age,  with  the  banner  of  the  Church  over  their 
heads,  and  the  Gospel  on  their  tongues,  and  fire 
and  sword  in  their  hands.  The  last  of  that  Apoca- 
lyptic rabble  has  not  yet  past  by.  Let  the  clouds 
of  darkness  hide  them.  What  need  to  tell  of  our 
own  fathers  ;  what  they  suffered,  what  they  in- 
flicted ;  their  crime  is  fresh  and  unatoned.  Rather 
let  us  take  the  wings  of  an  angel,  and  fly  away 
from  scenes  so  awful,  the  slaughter-house  of  souls. 

But  the  milder  forms  of  Fanaticism  we  cannot 
escape.  They  meet  us  in  the  theological  war  of 
extermination,  in  which  sect  now  wars  with  sect, 
pulpit  with  pulpit,  man  with  man.     If  one  would 


144  THE  FANATICISM  OF  OUR  TIME. 

seek  specimens  of  Superstition  in  its  milder  form, 
let  him  open  a  popular  commentary  on  the  Bible,' 
or  read  much  of  that  weakish  matter  which  circu- 
lates in  what  men  call,  as  if  in  mockery,  good 
pious  books.  If  he  would  find  Fanaticism  in  its 
modern  and  more  Pharisaic  shape,  let  him  open  the 
"  religious "  newspapers,  or  read  theological  po- 
lemics. To  what  mean  uses  may  we  not  descend  ? 
The  spirit  of  a  Caligula  and  a  Dominic,  of  Alva 
and  Ignatius,  stare  at  men  in  the  street.  It  can 
only  bay  in  the  distance  ;  it  does  not  bite.  Poor 
craven  Fanaticism  !  fallen  like  Lucifer,  never  to 
hope  again.  Like  Pope  and  Pagan  in  the  story, 
he  sits  chained  by  the  way-side,  to  grin  and  gibber, 
and  howl  and  snarl,  as  the  Pilgrim  goes  by,  singing 
the  song  of  the  fearless  and  free,  on  the  highway 
to  Heaven,  w'ith  his  girdle  about  him  and  white 
robe  on.  Poor  Fanaticism,  who  was  drunk  with 
the  blood  of  the  saints,  and  in  his  debauch,  lifted 
his  horn  and  pushed  at  the  Almighty,  and  slew  the 
children  of  God,  —  he  shall  revel  but  in  the  dreamy 
remembrance  of  his  ancient  crime  ;  his  teeth  shall 
be  fleshed  no  more  in  the  limbs  of  the  living. 

These  two  morbid  states  just  past  over,  represent 
the  most  hideous  forms  of  human  degradation  ; 
where  the  foulest  passions  are  at  their  foulest  work  ; 
where  Malice,  which  a  Devil  might  envy,  but 
which  might  make  Hell  darker  with  its  frown ; 
where  Hate  and  Rancor  biiild  up  their  organiza- 
tions and  ply  their  arts.    In  man  there  is  a  mixture 


SOLID  PIETY.  1  15 

of  good  and  evil.  "  A  being  darkly  wise  and  poorly 
great,"  he  has  in  him  somewhat  of  the  Angel  and 
something  of  the  Devil.  In  Fanaticism,  the  Angel 
sleeps  and  the  Devil  drives.  But  let  us  leave  the 
hateful  theme. ^ 

III.  Of  Solid  Piety. 
The  legitimate  and  perfect  action  of  the  religious 
sentiment  takes  place  when  it  exists  in  harmonious 
combination  w^ith  Reason,  Conscience,  and  Affec- 
tion. Then  it  is  not  Hatred,  and  not  Fear,  but 
Love  before  God.  It  produces  the  most  beautiful 
development  of  human  nature  ;  the  golden  age,  the 
fairest  Eden  of  life  ;  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.  Its 
Deity  is  the  God  of  Love,  within  whose  encircling 
arms  it  is  beautiful  to  be.  The  demands  it  makes 
are  to  keep  the  Law  he  has  written  in  the  heart, 
to  be  good,  to  do  good  ;  to  love  man,  to  love  God. 
It  may  use  forms,  prayers,  dogmas,  ceremonies, 
priests,  temples,  sabbaths,  festivals  and  fasts  ;  yes, 
sacrifices  if  it  will,  as  means,  not  ends  ;  symbols  of 
a  sentiment,  not  substitutes  for  it.  Its  substance  is 
love  of  God  ;  its  form  love  of  man  ;  its  temple  a 
pure  heart ;  its  sacrifice  a  divine  life.  The  end  it 
proposes  is,  to  reunite  the  man  with  God,  till  he 

'  A  powerful  priesthood  has  usually  had  great  influence  in  promoting 
fanaticism  of  the  most  desperate  character.  One  need  only  look  over  the 
history  of  persecutions  in  all  ages  to  see  this.  We  see  it  among  the 
Hebrews,  the  Germans,  the  Druids  ;  the  nations  that  opposed  the  spread 
of  Christianity.  The  Christian  church  itself  has  erected  monuments 
enough  to  perpetuate  the  fact.  The  story  of  Haman  and  Mordccai  is  no 
bad  allegory  of  the  conflict  between  the  orthodox  priesthood  and  the  un- 
organized heretics. 
19 


146  THE  HAPPY  CONDITION 

thinks  God's  thought,  which  is  Truth  ;  feels  God's 
feeling,  which  is  Love  ;  wills  God's  will,  which  is 
the  eternal  Right ;  thus  finding  God  in  the  sense 
wherein  he  is  not  far  from  any  one  of  us  ;  becoming 
one  with  him,  and  so  partaking  the  divine  nature. 
The  means  to  this  high  end  are  an  extinction  of  all 
in  man  that  opposes  God's  law  ;  a  perfect  obedience 
to  him  as  he  speaks  in  Reason,  Conscience,  Affec- 
tion. It  leads  through  active  obedience  to  an 
absolute  trust,  a  perfect  love ;  to  the  complete 
harmony  of  the  finite  man  with  the  infinite  God, 
and  man's  will  coalesces  in  that  of  Him  who  is  All 
in  All.  Then  Faith  and  Knowledge  are  the  same 
thing,  Reason  and  Revelation  do  not  conflict. 
Desire  and  Duty  go  hand  in  hand,  and  strew  man's 
path  with  flowers.  Desire  has  become  dutiful,  and 
Duty  desirable;  The  divine  spirit  incarnates  itself 
in  the  man.  The  riddle  of  the  world  is  solved. 
Perfect  love  casts  out  fear.  Then  Religion  demands 
no  particular  actions,  forms,  or  modes  of  thought. 
The  man's  ploughing  is  holy  as  his  prayer;  his 
daily  bread  as  the  smoke  of  his  sacrifice  ;  his  home 
sacred  as  his  temple  ;  his  w^ork-day  and  his  sabbath 
are  alike  God's  day.  His  priest  is  the  holy  spirit 
within  him ;  Faith  and  Works  his  communion  of 
both  kinds.  He  does  not  sacrifice  Reason  to  Reli- 
gion, nor  Religion  to  Reason.  Brother  and  Sister, 
they  dwell  together  in  love.  A  life  harmonious  and 
beautiful,  conducted  by  Rectitude,  filled  full  with 
Truth  and  enchanted  by  Love  to  man  and  God,  — 
this  is  the  service  he  pays  to  the  Father  of  All. 


OF   THR    REMC.IOUS  MAN.  147 

Belief  does  not  take  the  place  of  Life.  Capricious 
austerity  atones  for  no  duty  left  undone.  He  loves 
Religion  as  a  bride,  for  her  own  sake,  not  for  what 
she  brings.  He  lies  low  in  the  hand  of  God.  The 
breath  of  the  Father  is  on  him. 

If  Joj  comes  to  this  man,  he  rejoices  in  its  rosy 
light.  His  Wealth,  his  Wisdom,  his  Power,  is  not 
for  himself  alone,  but  for  all  God's  children.  No- 
thing is  his  which  a  brother  needs  more  than  he. 
Like  God  himself,  he  is  kind  to  the  thankless  and 
unmerciful.  Purity  without  and  Piety  within ; 
these  are  his  Heaven,  both  present  and  to  come. 
Is  not  his  flesh  as  holy  as  his  soul  —  his  body  a 
temple  of  God  ? 

If  trouble  comes  on  him,  which  Prudence  could 
not  foresee,  nor  Strength  overcome,  nor  Wisdom 
escape  from,  he  bears  it  with  a  heart  serene  and 
full  of  peace.  Over  every  gloomy  cavern,  and  den 
of  despair,  Hope  arches  her  rainbow ;  the  ambrosial 
light  descends.  Religion  shows  him,  that,  out  of 
desert  rocks,  black  and  savage,  where  the  Vulture 
has  her  home,  where  the  Storm  and  the  Avalanche 
are  born,  and  whence  they  descend,  to  crush  and 
to  kill ;  out  of  these  hopeless  cliffs,  falls  the  river  of 
Life,  which  flows  for  all,  and  makes  glad  the  peo- 
ple of  God.  When  the  Storm  and  the  Avalanche 
sweep  from  him  afl  that  is  dearest  to  mortal  hope, 
is  he  comfortless  ?  Out  of  the  hard  marble  of  Life, 
the  deposition  of  a  few  joys  and  many  sorrows,  of 
birth  and  death,  and  smiles  and  grief,  he  hews  him 
the   beautiful  statue  of  religious  Tranquillity.     It 


148  INFLUENCE  OF  ADVERSITY 

Stands  ever  beside  him,  with  the  smile  of  heavenly 
satisfaction  on  its  lip,  and  its  trusting  finger  point- 
ing to  the  sky. 

The  true  religious  man,  amid  all  the  ills  of  time, 
keeps  a  serene  forehead,  and  entertains  a  peaceful 
heart.  Thus  going  out  and  coming  in,  amid  all  the 
trials  of  the  city,  the  agony  of  the  plague,  the  hor- 
rors of  the  thirty  tyrants,  the  fierce  democracy 
abroad,  the  fiercer  ill  at  home,  the  Saint,  the  Sage 
of  Athens,  was  still  the  same.  Such  an  one  can 
endure  hardness  ;  can  stand  alone  and  be  content ; 
a  rock  amid  the  waves,  lonely,  but  not  moved. 
Around  him  the  few  or  the  man}'  may  scream  their 
screams,  or  cry  their  clamors  ;  calumniate  or  blas- 
pheme. What  is  it  all  to  him,  but  the  cawing  of 
the  sea-bird  about  that  solitary  and  deep-rooted 
stone  ?  So  swarms  of  summer  flies,  and  spiteful 
wasps,  may  assail  the  branches  of  an  oak,  which  lifts 
its  head,  storm-tried  and  old,  above  the  hills.  They 
move  a  leaf,  or  bend  a  twig  by  their  united  weight. 
Their  noise,  fitful  and  malicious,  elsewhere  might 
frighten  the  sheep  in  the  meadows.  Here  it  be- 
comes a  placid  hum.  It  joins  the  wild  whisper  of 
the  leaves.  It  swells  the  breezy  music  of  the  tree, 
but  makes  it  bear  no  acorn  less. 

He  fears  no  evil,  God  is  his  armor  against  fate. 
He  rejoices  in  his  trials,  and  Jeremiah  sings  psalms 
in  his  dungeon,  and  Daniel  prays  three  times  a  day 
with  his  window  up,  that  all  may  hear,  and  Nebu- 
chadnezzar cast  him  to  the  lions  if  he  will ;  Luther 


ON  TIIR  RRI.IGIOrS   MAN.  149 

will  £;o  to  the  Diet  at  Worms,  if  it  rain  encmios  for 
nine  days  running  ;  "  though  the  Devils  be  thick  as 
the  tiles  on  the  roof."  Martyred  Stephen  sees 
God  in  the  clouds.  The  victim  at  the  stake  glories 
in  the  fire  he  lights,  which  shall  shine  all  England 
through.  Yes,  Paul,  an  old  man,  forsaken  of  his 
friends,  tried  by  many  perils,  daily  expecting  an 
awful  death,  sits  comforted  in  his  dungeon.  The 
Lord  stands  by  and  says,  Fear  not,  Paul,  Lo,  I  am 
with  thee  to  the  world's  end.  The  tranquil  saint 
can  say,  I  know  whom  I  have  served.  I  have  not 
the  spirit  of  fear,  but  joy.  I  am  ready  to  be  sacri- 
ficed. Such  trials  prove  the  Soul  as  Gold  is  prov- 
ed. The  dross  perishes  in  the  fire  ;  but  the  virgin 
metal  —  it  comes  brighter  from  the  flame.  What 
is  it  to  such  a  man  to  be  scourged,  forsaken,  his 
name  a  proverb,  counted  as  the  offscouring  of  the 
world?  There  is  that  in  him  which  looks  down 
millions.  Cast  down,  he  is  not  in  dismay  ;  for- 
saken —  never  less  alone.  Slowly  and  soft  the 
Soul  of  Faith  comes  into  the  man.  He  knows  that 
he  is  seen  by  the  pure  and  terrible  eyes  of  Infinity. 
He  feels  the  sympathy  of  the  Soul  of  All,  and  says, 
with  modest  triumph,  I  am  not  alone,  for  Thou  art 
with  me.  Mortal  affections  may  cease  their  melo- 
dy ;  but  the  Infinite  speaks  to  his  soul  comfort  too 
deep  for  words,  and  too  divine.  What  if  he  have 
not  the  Sun  of  human  affection  to  cheer  him  ?  The 
awful  faces  of  the  Stars  look  from  the  serene  depths 
of  divine  Love,  and  seem  to  say,  "  Well  done." 
What  if  the  sweet  music  of  human  sympathy  van- 


150  POWER  OF   RELIGION. 

ish  before  the  discordant  curse  of  his  brother  man  ? 
The  melody  of  the  spheres — so  sweet  we  heed  it 
not  when  tried  less  sorely  —  rolls  in  upon  the  soul 
its  tranquil  tide,  and  that  same  Word,  which  was 
in  the  beginning,  says,  "  Thou  art  my  beloved  Son 
and  in  thee  am  I  well  pleased."  Earth  is  over- 
come, and  Heaven  won. 

It  is  well  for  mankind  that  God  now  and  then 
raises  up  a  hero  of  the  soul ;  exposes  him  to  grim 
trials  in  the  fore  front  of  the  battle  ;  sustains  him 
there,  that  we  may  know  what  nobility  is  in  man, 
and  how  near  him  God  ;  to  show  that  greatness  in 
the  religious  man  is  only  needed  to  be  found  ;  that 
his  Charity  does  not  expire  with  the  quivers  of  his 
flesh  ;  that  this  hero  can  end  his  breath  with  a 
"  Father,  forgive  them." 

Man  everywhere  is  the  measure  of  man.  There 
is  nothing  which  the  Flesh  and  the  Devil  can  inflict 
in  their  rage,  but  the  Holy  can  bear  in  its  exceed- 
ing peace.  The  Art  of  the  tormenter  is  less  than 
the  Nature  of  the  suflering  soul.  All  the  denunci- 
ations of  all  that  sat  in  Moses's  seat,  or  have  since 
climbed  to  that  of  the  Messiah  ;  the  scorn  of  the 
contemptuous ;  the  fury  of  the  passionate ;  the 
wrath  of  a  monarch,  and  the  roar  of  his  armies  ;  all 
these  are  to  a  religious  soul  but  the  buzzing  of  the 
flies  about  that  mountain  oak.  There  is  nothing 
that  prevails  against  Truth. 

Now  in  some  men  Religion  is  a  continual  growth. 
They  are  always  in  harmony  vi^ith  God.     Silently 


THE   STRUGGLE  WITH  SIN.  151 

and  unconscious,  erect  as  a  palm  tree,  thoy  grow 
up  to  the  measure  of  a  man.  To  them  Reason  and 
Religion  are  of  the  same  hirth.  They  are  born 
saints;  Aborigines  of  Heaven.  Betwixt  their  Idea 
of  Life  and  their  Fact  of  Life  there  has  at  no  time 
been  a  gulf.  But  others  join  themselves  to  the 
Armada  of  Sin  and  get  scarred  all  over  with  wounds 
as  they  do  thankless  battle  in  that  leprous  host. 
Before  these  men  become  religious,  there  must  be 
a  change,  —  well-defined,  deeply  marked,  —  a 
change  that  will  be  remembered.  The  Saints  who 
have  been  sinners  —  tell  us  of  the  struggle  and 
desperate  battle  that  goes  on  between  the  Flesh 
and  the  Spirit.  It  is  as  if  the  Devil  and  the  Arch- 
angel contended.  Well  says  John  Bunyan,  The 
Devil  fought  with  me  weeks  long,  and  I  with  the 
Devil.  To  take  the  leap  of  Niagara,  and  stop  when 
half-way  down,  and  by  the  proper  motion  reascend 
—  is  no  slight  thing,  nor  the  remembrance  thereof 
like  to  pass  away. 

This  passage  from  sin  to  salvation ;  this  second 
birth  of  the  Soul,  as  both  Christians  and  Heathens 
call  it,  is  one  of  the  many  mysteries  of  man.  Two 
elements  meet  in  the  soul.  There  is  a  negation  of 
the  past ;  an  affirmation  of  the  future.  Terror  and 
Hope,  Penitence  and  Faith  rush  together  in  that 
moment  and  a  new  life  begins.  The  character 
gradually  grows  over  the  wounds  of  sin.  With 
bleeding  feet  the  man  retreads  his  way,  but  gains 
at  last  the  mountain  top  of  Life  and  wonders  at  the 
tortuous  track  he  left  behind. 


152  THE  JOYS  OF  LIFE. 

Shall  it  be  said  that  Religion  is  the  great  refine- 
ment of  the  world  ;  its  tranquil  star  that  never  sets  ? 
Need  it  be  told  that  all  nature  works  in  its  behalf; 
that  every  mute  and  every  living  thing  seems  to  re- 
peat God's  voice,  Be  perfect;  that  Nature,  which  is 
the  out-ness  of  God,  favors  Religion,  which  is  the 
in-ness  of  man,  and  so  God  works  with  us  ?  Hea- 
thens knew  it  many  centuries  ago.  It  has  long  been 
known  that  Religion  —  in  its  true  estate  —  created 
the  deepest  welfiu'e  of  man.  Socrates,  Seneca, 
Plutarch,  Antoninus,  Fenelon  can  tell  us  this.  It 
might  well  be  so.  Religion  comes  from  what  is 
strongest,  deepest,  m.ost  beautiful  and  divine  ;  lays 
no  rude  hand  on  soul  or  sense;  condemns  no  faculty 
as  base.  It  sets  no  bounds  to  Reason  but  Truth ; 
none  to  Affection  but  Love  ;  none  to  Desire  but 
Duty ;  none  to  the  Soul  but  Perfection ;  and  these 
are  not  limits  but  the  charter  of  infinite  freedom. 

No  doubt  there  is  joy  in  the  success  of  earthly 
schemes.  There  is  joy  to  the  miser  as  he  satiates 
his  prurient  palm  with  gold  :  there  is  joy  for  the 
fool  of  fortune  when  his  gaming  brings  a  prize. 
But  what  is  it  ?  His  request  is  granted  ;  but  lean- 
ness enters  his  soul.  There  is  delight  in  feasting 
on  the  bounties  of  Earth,  the  garment  in  which 
God  veils  the  brightness  of  his  face  ;  in  being  filled 
with  the  fragrant  loveliness  of  flowers  ;  the  song  of 
birds ;  the  hum  of  bees  ;  the  sounds  of  ocean  ;  the 
rustle  of  the  summer  wind,  heard  at  evening  in  the 
pine  tops ;  in  the  cool  running  brooks ;  in  the  ma- 
jestic sweep  of  undulating  hills  ;  the  grandeur  of 


e. 
THE  JOYS  OF  LIFE.  153 

untamed  forests  ;  the  mnjesty  of  the  mountain  ;  in 
the  morning's  virgin  beauty;  in  the  maternal  grace 
of  evenine;,  and  the  sublime  and  mystic  pomp  of 
night.  Nature's  silent  sympathy  —  how  beautiful 
it  is. 

There  is  Joy,  no  doubt  there  is  joy,  to  the  mind 
of  Genius,  when  thought  bursts  on  him  as  the 
tropic  sun  rending  a  cloud  ;  when  long  trains  of 
ideas  sweep  through  his  soul,  as  constellated  orbs 
before  an  angel's  eye  ;  when  sublime  thoughts  and 
burning  words  rush  to  the  heart ;  w  hen  nature  un- 
veils her  secret  truth,  and  some  great  Law  breaks, 
all  at  once,  upon  a  Newton's  mind,  and  Chaos  ends 
in  light ;  when  the  hour  of  his  inspiration  and  the 
joy  of  his  genius  is  on  him,  'tis  then  that  this  child 
of  Heaven  feels  a  godlike  delight.  'Tis  sympathy 
with  Truth. 

There  is  a  higher  and  more  tranquil  bliss,  when 
heart  communes  with  heart :  when  two  souls  unite 
in  one,  like  mingling  dew-drops  on  a  rose,  that 
scarcely  touch  the  flower,  but  mirror  the  heavens  in 
their  little  orbs  ;  when  perfect  love  transforms  two 
souls,  either  man's  or  woman's,  each  to  the  other's 
image  ;  when  one  heart  beats  in  two  bosoms  ;  one 
spirit  speaks  with  a  divided  tongue  ;  when  the  same 
soul  is  eloquent  in  mutual  eyes,  there  is  a  rapture 
deep,  serene,  heartfelt  and  abiding  in  this  myste- 
rious fellow-feeling  with  a  congenial  soul,  which 
puts  to  shame  the  cold  sympathy  of  Nature,  and 
the  extatic  but  short-lived  bliss  of  Genius  in  his  high 
and  burning  hour. 

20 


154  THE  WELFARE  OF  RELIGION. 

But  the  welfare  of  Religion  is  more  than  each  or 
all  of  these.  The  glad  reliance  that  comes  upon- 
the  man  ;  the  sense  of  trust ;  a  rest  with  God  ;  the 
soul's  exceeding  peace ;  the  universal  harmony ; 
the  infinite  within  ;  sympathy  with  the  Soul  of  All 
—  is  bliss  that  words  cannot  portray.  He  only 
knows,  who  feels.  The  speech  of  a  prophet  cannot 
tell  the  tale.  No  :  not  if  a  seraph  touched  his  lips 
with  fire.  In  the  high  hour  of  religious  visitation 
from  the  living  God,  there  seems  to  be  no  separate 
thought ;  the  tide  of  universal  life  sets  through  the 
soul.  The  thought  of  self  is  gone.  It  is  a  little 
accident  to  be  a  king  or  a  clown,  a  parent  or  a  child. 
Man  is  at  one  with  God,  and  He  is  All  in  All. 
Neither  the  loveliness  of  nature  ;  neither  the  joy  of 
genius,  nor  the  sweet  breathing  of  congenial  hearts, 
that  make  delicious  music  as  they  beat,  —  neither 
one  nor  all  of  these  can  equal  the  joy  of  the  religious 
soul  that  is  at  one  with  God,  so  full  of  peace  that 
prayer  is  needless.  This  deeper  joy  gives  an  added 
charm  to  the  former  blessings.  Nature  undergoes 
a  new  transformation.  A  story  tells  that  w^hen  the 
rising  sun  fell  on  Memnon's  statue  it  wakened  mu- 
sic in  that  breast  of  stone.  Religion  does  the  same 
with  nature.  From  the  shining  snake  to  the  water- 
fall, it  is  all  eloquent  of  God.  As  to  John  in  the 
Apocalypse,  there  stands  an  angel  in  the  sun  ;  the 
seraphim  hang  over  every  flower  ;  God  speaks  in 
each  little  grass,  that  fringes  a  mountain  rock. 
Then  even  Genius  is  wedded  to  a  greater  bliss. 
His  thoughts  shine  more  brilliant,  when  set  in  the 


THE   WELFARE  OF  RELIGION.  155 

light  of  Religion.  Friondshij)  and  Love  it  renders 
infinite.  The  man  loves  God  when  he  loves  his 
friend.  This  is  the  joy  Religion  gives  ;  its  peren- 
nial rest ;  its  everlasting  life.  It  comes  not  by 
chance.  It  is  the  possession  of  such  as  ask  and  toil 
and  toil  and  ask.  It  is  withheld  from  none,  as  other 
gifts.  Nature  tells  little  to  the  deaf,  the  blind,  the 
rude.  Every  man  is  not  a  genius,  and  has  not  his 
joy.  Few  men  can  find  a  friend  that  is  the  world 
to  them.  That  triune  sympathy,  is  not  for  every 
one.  But  this  welfare  of  Religion,  the  deepest, 
truest,  the  everlasting,  the  sympathy  with  God,  lies 
within  the  reach  of  all  his  Sons. 


BOOK    II. 


"Reason  is  natural  Revelation,  whereby  tlie  eternal  Fatlier  of  Light 
and  Fountain  of  all  Knowledge,  communicates  to  mankind  that  portion 
of  truth  which  he  has  laid  within  the  reach  of  their  natural  faculties. 
Revelation  is  natural  Reason  enlarged  by  a  now  set  of  discoveries,  com- 
municated by  God  immediately,  which  Reason  vouches  the  truth  of,  by 
the  testimony  and  proofs  it  gives  that  they  come  from  God.  So  that  he 
that  takes  away  Reason,  to  make  way  for  revelation,  puts  out  the  light  of 
both,  and  does  much-what  the  same,  as  if  he  would  persuade  a  man  to 
put  out  his  eyes,  the  better  to  receive  the  remote  light  of  an  invisible  star 
by  a  telescope."  —  Locke,  Essay,  I'ook  IV.  Chap.  XIX.  §  4. 


BOOK   II. 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  RELICxIOUS   SENTIMENT  TO  GOD,  OR 
A  DISCOURSE  OF   INSPIRATION. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE    IDEA    AND    CONCEPTION    OF    GOD. 

Two  things  are  necessary  to  render  Religion  pos- 
sible ;  name!}',  a  religions  nature  in  man,  and  God  out 
of  man  as  the  object  of  that  religions  nature.  The  ex- 
istence of  these  two  facts  admitted,  Religion  follows 
necessarily,  as  vision  from  the  existence  of  a  seeing 
faculty  in  man,  and  that  of  light  out  of  him.  Now 
the  existence  of  the  religious  element,  as  it  was 
said  before,  implies  its  object.  We  have  naturally 
a  Sentiment  of  God.  Reason  gives  us  an  Idea  of 
Him.  These  are  founded  in  our  nature,  and  are  in 
themselves  unchangeable,  always  the  same.  But 
to  these  we  superadd  a  Conception  of  him.  Can 
this  conception  be  adequate  ?  Certainly  not.  The 
Idea  of  God,  as  the  Infinite,  may  exhaust  the  most 
transcendent  Imagination  ;  it  is  the  highest  Idea  of 
^^hich  man  is  capable.     But  is  God  to  be  measured 


160  OOD  NOT  PERSONAL 

by  our  Idea  ?  Shall  the  finite  ch'cumscribe  the 
Infinite  ?  The  existence  of  God  is  so  plainly  and 
deeply  writ  both  in  us  and  out  of  us,  in  what  we  are, 
and  what  we  experience,  that  the  humblest  and  the 
loftiest  minds  may  be  satisfied  of  this  reality,  and 
may  know  that  there  is  an  absolute  Cause  ;  a  Ground 
of  all  things  ;  the  Infinite  of  Power,  Wisdom,  Love, 
whereon  we  may  repose,  wherein  we  may  confide. 
This  conclusion  comes  alike  from  the  spontaneous 
sentiment,  and  premeditated  reflection  ;  from  the 
intuition  of  Reason,  and  the  process  of  Reasoning. 
This  Idea  of  God  is  clear  and  distinct ;  not  to  be 
confounded  with  any  other  idea. 

But  when  we  attempt  to  go  farther,  to  give  a 
logical  description  of  Deity,  its  nature  and  essence  ; 
to  define  and  classify  its  attributes  ;  to  make  a 
conception  of  God  as  of  the  finite  objects  of  the 
senses  or  the  understanding,  then  we  have  nothing 
but  our  own  subjective  notions,  which  do  not,  of 
necessity,  have  an  objective  reality  corresponding 
thereto.  All  men  may  know  God  as  the  Infinite. 
His  nature  and  essence  are  past  finding  out.  But 
we  know  God  only  in  part — from  the  manifestations 
of  divinity,  seen  in  nature,  felt  in  man.  Are  these 
the  whole  of  God  ;  is  man  his  measure  ?  Then  is 
He  exhausted,  and  not  infinite.  We  affix  the  terms 
of  human  limitation  to  God,  and  speak  of  his  Per- 
sonality ;  some  limiting  it  to  one,  others  extending 
it  to  three,  to  seven,  to  thirty,  or  to  many  millions 
of  persons.  Can  such  terms  apply  to  the  Infinite  ? 
We  talk  of  a  personal   God.     If  thereby  we  only 


NOR  IMPERSONAL.  161 

deny  that  lie  has  the  limitations  of  matter,  no  wrong 
is  done.  But  our  conception  of  Personality,  is  that 
o^ finite  personality,  limited  by  human  imperfec- 
tions ;  hemmed  in  by  Time  and  Space  ;  restricted 
by  partial  emotions,  displeasure,  wrath,  ignorance, 
will.  Can  this  be  said  of  God  ?  If  matter  were 
conscious,  as  Locke  thinks  it  possible,  it  must  predi- 
cate materiality  of  God  as  persons  predicate  person- 
ality o^Wm^.  We  apply  the  term  impersonal.  If  it 
mean  God  has  not  the  limitations  of  our  personality 
it  is  well.  But  if  it  mean  that  he  has  those  of  un- 
conscious matter,  it  is  worse  than  the  other  term. 
Can  God  be  personal  and  conscious,  as  Joseph  and 
Peter ;  unconscious  and  impersonal  as  a  moss  or 
the  celestial  ether  ?  No  man  will  say  it.  Where 
then  is  the  philosophic  value  of  such  terms  ? 

The  nature  of  God  is  past  finding  out.  *'  There 
is  no  searching  of  his  understanding."  As  the  ab- 
solute cause  God  must  contain  in  himself,  poten- 
tially, the  ground  of  consciousness,  of  personality, 
yes,  of  unconsciousness  and  impersonality.  But  to 
apply  these  terms  to  Him,  seems  to  me,  a  vain, 
attempt  to  fathom  the  abyss  of  the  God-head  and 
report  the  soundings.  Will  our  line  reach  to  the 
bottom  of  God  ?  There  is  nothing  on  Earth,  or  in 
Heaven,  to  w^hich  we  can  compare  him  ;  of  course 
we  can  have  no  image  of  him  in  the  mind.' 


'  There  has  been  some  controversy  on  this  question  of  the  personality 

of    God   in   modern   times.     The    writings  of   Spinoza,    both    now    and 

formerly,  have  caused  much  discussion  of  this  point.    The  capital  maxim 

of  Spinoza  on  this  head  is,  all  attempts  to  determine  the  nature  of  God, 

21 


162  GOD'S  ESSEJMCE  NOT  TO  BE  KNOWN. 

There  has  heen  enough  dogmatism  respecting 
the  nature,  essence,  and  personality  of  God  ;  re- 
specting tlie  Metaphysics  of  the  Deity,  and  that 
by  men,  who,  perhaps,  did  not  thoroughly  under- 
stand all  about  the  nature,  essence,  and  meta- 
physics of  Man.  It  avails  nothing.  Meanwhile 
the  greatest  religious  souls  that  have  ever  been, 
are  content  to  fall  back  on  the  Sentiment  and  the 
Idea  of  God,  and  confess  that  none  by  searching 
can  perfectly  find  out  God.  They  can  say,  there- 
fore, with  an  old  Heathen,  '*  Since  he  cannot  be 
fully  declared  by  any  one  name,  though  compounded 
of  never  so  many,  therefore  is  he  rather  to  be  called 
by  every  name,  he  being  both  one  and  all  things  ; 
so  that  [to  express  the  whole  of  God,]  either  every 
thing  must  be  called  by  his  name,  or  he  by  the 
name   of  every  thing." ^     "Call  him,   therefore," 

are  a  negation  of  him.  Deter minatio  ncgatio  est.  See  Ep.  50,  p.  634,  ed. 
Paulus.  He  thinks  God  has  sclf-co7iscious  personality  only  in  self-con- 
sciovis  persons,  i.  e.  men.     Ethic.  11.  Prop  11.  and  Coroll. 

Some  have  thought  to  help  the  matter  by  the  Trinitarian  hypothesis. 
If  there  were  but  one  man  in  the  universe,  he  could  not  indeed,  it  is  said, 
have  our  conception  of  personality,  which  demands  other  persons.  This 
condition  is  fulfilled  for  the  divine  Being  soon  as  we  admit  a  trinity 
in  unity.  Mystical  writers  have  always  inclined  to  a  denial  of  the  per- 
sonality of  God.  Thus  Plotinus,  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  Scotus  Ex- 
igena,  Meister  Eckart,  Tauler  and  Bohme,  to  mention  no  more,  deny  it. 
On  this  subject  see  Hegel,  Lectures  on  the  proofs  of  the  existence  of  God, 
at  the  end  of  Philosophie  der  Religion,  Encyclopadie,  §  562,  et  seq.,  2d 
ed.  See  the  subject  touched  upon  by  Strauss,  Glaubenslehre,  §  33.  See 
also  Nitzsch's  review  of  Strauss  in  Studien  und  Kritiken  for  Jan.  1, 
1842. 

In  reference  to  Spinoza,  see  the  controversial  writings  of  Messrs. 
Norton  and  Ripley,  above  referred  to. 

'  See  the  Asclepian  Dialogue,  and  also  the  passages  from  Seneca  and 
Julian,  cited  in  Cudworth,  A'ol.  II.  p   G79,  et  seq  ,  Ch.  IV.  §  32. 


GOD'S   KSSENCE  NOT  TO  BE  KNOWN.  163 

saj's  another  Pagan,  "  l)y  all  names,  for  all  can  ex- 
press but  a  whisper  of  Him  ;  call  Him  rather  by 
no  name,  for  none  can  declare  his  Power,  Wisdom, 
and  Goodness." 

IMalebranche  says,  with  as  much  philosophy  as 
piety,  "  One  ought  not  so  much  to  call  God  a 
spirit,  in  order  to  express  positively  what  he  is,  as 
in  order  to  signify  that  he  is  not  matter.  He  is  a 
being  infinitely  perfect.  Of  this  we  cannot  doubt. 
But  in  the  same  manner  we  ou2;ht  not  to  ima2;ine 
.  .  .  that  he  is  clothed  with  a  human  body  .  .  . 
under  color  that  that  figure  was  the  most  perfect  of 
any ;  so  neither  ought  we  to  imagine  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  has  human  ideas,  or  bears  any  re- 
semblance to  our  Spirit,  under  color  that  we  know 
nothing  more  perfect  than  the  human  mind.  We 
ought  rather  to  believe  that  as  he  comprehends  the 
perfection  of  matter,  without  being  material,  .  .  so 
he  comprehends  also  the  perfections  of  created 
spirits  without  being  spirit,  in  the  manner  we  con- 
ceive spirit.  That  his  true  name  is,  He  that  is, 
or  in  other  words  being  w^iihout  restriction,  All 
Being,  the  Being  Infinite  and  Universal."  ^  Still 
we  have  a  positive  Idea  of  God.  It  is  the  most 
positive  of  all.     It  is  implied  logically  in  every  idea 

'  Rechcrches  de  la  Veritc,  Liv.  III.  Ch.  IX.  as  cited  in  Ilumc,  Dia- 
logues, concerning  Nat.  Rel.  Vol.  II.  p.  469.  See  Kant,  Kritik  der  reinen 
Vernunft,  p.  44I-.'j40,  7th  ed.  Weisse  Die  Idee  der  Gottheit,  IS;}.!. 
Some  have  been  unwilling  to  attribute  being  to  the  Deity,  since  we  have 
no  conception  nor  knowledge  of  being  in  itself,  still  less  of  infinite  being. 
Our  knowledge  oi'  being  is  only  ol  being  tkis  and  that,  a  conditioned  being, 
wliich  is  not  predicable  of  God. 


164  IDEA   OF   GOD. 

that  we  form,  so  that  as  God  himself  is  the  being 
of  all  existence ;  the  back-ground  and  cause  of  all- 
things  that  are  ;  the  reality  of  all  appearance,  so 
the  Idea  of  God  is  the  central  truth,  as  it  were,  of 
all  other  ideas  whatever.  The  objects  of  all  other 
ideas  are  dependent,  and  not  final ;  the  object  of 
this  independent  and  ultimate.  This  Idea  of  an 
Independent  and  Infinite  Cause,  therefore,  is  neces- 
sarily presupposed  by  the  conception  of  any  de- 
pendent and  finite  effect.  For  example,  a  man 
forms  a  notion  of  his  own  existence.  This  notion 
involves  that  of  dependence,  which  conducts  him 
back  to  that  on  which  dependence  rests.  He  has 
no  complete  notion  of  his  own  existence  without  the 
notion  of  dependence  ;  nor  of  that  without  the  ob- 
ject on  which  he  depends.  Take  our  stand  where 
we  may,  and  reason,  we  come  back  logically  to 
this  which  is  the  primitive  fact  in  all  our  intellectual 
conceptions,  just  as  each  point  in  the  circumference 
of  a  circle,  is  a  point  in  the  radius  thereof,  and  this 
leads  straightway  to  the  Centre,  whence  they  all 
proceed.^ 

But  the  Idea  of  God    as    a  Being   of  Infinite 
Power,  Wisdom,   Love,  —  in   one   word,   the   Ab- 

'  This  is  not  the  place  to  attempt  a  proof  of  God's  existence.  In  Book 
1.  Ch.  II.  I  could  only  hint  at  the  sources  of  argument.  See  in  Weisse, 
Kant,  and  Strauss,  a  criticism  on  the  various  means  of  proof  resorted  to 
by  different  Philosophers.  Weisse  divides  these  proofs  into  three  classes. 
1.  The  Ontolngical  argument,  which  leads  to  Pantheism.  II.  The  Cos- 
tnological,  which  leads  to  Deism;  and  III.  the  Theological,  which  leads 
to  pure  Theis;n.  See  Leibnitz,  Theodicee,  Pt.  I.  §  7,  p.  50G,  ed.  Erd- 
mann,  1H40,  and  his  Epist.  ad  Bierlingium,  in  his  Epp,  ad  div.  ed.  Kor- 
tholt,  Vol.  IV.  p.  21,  (cited  by  Strauss,  ubi  sup.) 


HUMAN  PERSONIFICATION  OF  GOD.  165 

solute  —  dors  not  satisfy.  It  seems  cold  ;  we  call 
it  abstract.  We  arc  not  beings  of  Reason  alone; 
so  are  not  satisfied  with  mere  Ideas.  We  have 
Imagination,  Feelings,  limited  Affections,  Under- 
standing, Flesh  and  Blood.  Therefore  we  want  a 
conception  of  God  which  shall  answer  to  this  com- 
plex nature  of  ours.  Man  may  be  said  to  live  in 
the  World  of  Eternity,  or  abstract  truth  ;  that  of 
Time,  or  historical  events  ;  that  of  Space,  or  of  con- 
crete things.  Some  men  want,  therefore,  not  only 
an  Idea  for  the  first,  but  a  Conception  for  the  second, 
and  a  Form  for  the  third.  Accordingly  the  feelings, 
Fear,  Reverence,  Devotion,  Love,  naturally  person- 
ify God ;  humanize  the  deity,  and  represent  the  In- 
finite under  the  limitations  of  a  finite  and  imperfect 
being,  whom  we  "  can  know  all  about."  He  has 
the  thoughts,  feelings,  passions,  limitations  of  a 
man  ;  is  subject  to  time  and  space  ;  sees,  remem- 
bers, has  a  form.  This  is  anthropomorphism.  It 
is  well  in  its  place.  Some  rude  men  seem  to 
require  it.  They  must  paint  to  themselves  a  deity 
with  a  form ;  the  Ancient  of  days  ;  a  venerable 
monarch  seated  on  a  throne,  surrounded  by  troops 
of  followers.  But  it  must  be  remembered  all  this 
is  poetry ;  this  personal  and  anthropomorphitic  con- 
ception is  a  phantom  of  the  brain  that  has  no  ex- 
istence independent  of  ourselves.  A  poet  personi- 
fies a  mountain  or  the  moon  ;  addresses  it  as  if  it 
wore  the  form  of  man  ;  could  see  and  feel,  had 
human  thoughts,  sentiments,  hopes,  and  pleasures, 
and  expectations.     What  the  poet's  fancy  does  for 


166  ANALYSIS  OF   ANTHROPOMORPHITIC 

the  mountain,  the  feelings  of  reverence  and  devo- 
tion do  for  the  Idea  of  God.  They  clothe  it  with 
a  human  personality,  because  that  is  the  highest 
which  is  known  to  us.  Men  would  comprehend 
the  deity;  they  can  only  apprehend  him.  A 
Beaver,  or  a  Reindeer,  if  possessed  of  religious 
faculties,  would  also  conceive  of  the  deity  with  the 
limitations  of  their  own  personality,  as  a  Beaver  or 
a  Reindeer  —  whose  faculties  as  such  were  perfect, 
but  the  conception,  like  our  own,  must  be  only 
subjective,  for  man  is  no  measure  of  God.^ 

Now  by  reasoning  we  lay  aside  the  disguises  of 
the  Deity,  which  the  feelings  have  wrapped  about 
the  Idea  of  Him.  We  separate  the  substantial  from 
the  phenomenal  elements  in  the  conception  of  God. 
We  divest  it  of  all  particular ^?'m ;  all  sensual  or 
corporeal  attributes,  and  have  no  image  of  God  in  the 
mind.  He  is  Spirit,^  and  therefore  free  from  the 
limitations  of  space.  He  is  nowhere  in  particular, 
but  everywhere  in  general,  essentially  and  vitally 
omnipresent.  Denying  all  particular  form,  we  must 
affirm  of  him  Universal  Being. 

The  next  step  in  the  analysis  is  to  lay  aside  all 
partial  action  of  the  deity.  He  is  equally  the  cause 
of  the  storm  and  the  calm  sunshine  ;  of  the  fierce- 
ness of  the  Lion  and  the  Lamb's  gentleness  so  long 
as  both  obey  the  laws  they  are  made  to  keep.     All 

'  See  Xenophanes  as  cited  above  by  Eusebius,  P.  E.  XIII.  13.  See 
Karsten,  ubi  sup.  Vol  1.  p.  35,  et  seq. 

-  I  use  the  term  Spirit  simply  as  a  negation  of  matter.  We  cannot  tell 
the  essence  of  God. 


CONCEPTIOiNS  OF  GOD.  1G7 

the  natural  action  in  tlio  material  world  is  God's  ac- 
tion, wlietlier  tlu^  wind  blows  a  plank  and  the  ship- 
wrecked woman  who  grasj)s  it,  to  the  sliore,  or 
scatters  a  fleet  and  sends  families  to  the  bottom. 
But  Infinite  Action  or  Causation  must  be  attributed 
to  Him. 

Then  all  mental  processes,  like  those  of  man, 
are  separated  from  the  Idea  of  Him.  We  cannot 
say  he  thinks  ;  that  is  to  reason  from  the  known  to 
the  unknown,  which  is  impossible  to  the  omnis- 
cient ;  nor  that  he  plans  or  consults  with  himself, 
for  that  implies  the  infirmity  of  not  seeing  the  best 
way  all  at  once ;  nor  that  he  remembers  or  fore- 
sees, for  that  implies  a  restriction  in  time,  a  past 
and  a  present,  while  the  Infinite  must  fill  Eternity, 
all  time,  as  well  as  Immensity  all  space.  We  can- 
not attribute  to  Him  reflection,  which  is  after- 
thought, nor  imagination,  which  is  forethought, 
since  both  imply  limited  faculties.  Judgment,  fancy, 
comparison,  induction  —  these  are  the  operations  of 
finite  minds.  They  are  not  to  be  applied  to  the 
divine  Soul  except  as  figures  of  speech ;  then  they 
merely  represent  an  unknown  emotion.  We  have 
got  a  name  but  no  real  thing.  But  Infinite  Know- 
ing must  be  his. 

We  go  still  farther  in  this  analysis  of  the  concep- 
tion of  God,  and  all  partial  feeling  must  be  denied. 
We  cannot  say  that  he  hates  ;  is  angry,  or  grieved; 
repents  ;  is  moved  by  the  special  prayer  of  James 
and  John  ;  that  he  is  sad  today  and  tomorrow  joy- 
ful ;    all   these  are  human,  limitations  of  our  per- 


168  MAN  NO  MEASURE  OF  GOD. 

sonality,  and  are  no  more  to  be  ascribed  to  God 
than  the  form  of  the  Reindeer,  or  the  shrewdness 
of  the  Beaver.  But  Love  implies  no  finiteness. 
This  we  conceive  as  Infinite. 

At  the  end  of  the  Analysis,  what  is  left?  Being, 
Cause,  Knowledge,  Love,  each  with  no  conceiva- 
ble limitation.  To  express  it  in  a  word,  a  Being  of 
Infinite  Power,  Wisdom  and  Goodness.  Thus  by 
an  analysis  of  the  conception  of  God,  we  find  in  fact 
or  by  implication,  Just  what  was  given  synthetically 
by  the  intuition  of  Reason.  But  do  these  qualities 
exhaust  the  Deity  ?  Surely  not.  They  only  form 
our  Idea  of  Him.  It  is  idle,  impious  in  man  to  say, 
the  finite  creature  of  yesterday  can  measure  Him 
who  is  the  All  in  All,  the  True,  the  Holy,  the  Good, 
the  Altogether-Beautiful.  Let  a  man  look  into  the 
milky-way,  and  strive  to  conceive  of  the  Mind  that 
is  the  Cause,  the  Will,  of  all  those  centres  to  un- 
known worlds,  and  ask  What  can  I  know  of  Him  ? 
Nay,  let  a  man  turn  over  in  his  hand  a  single  crystal 
of  snow,  and  consider  its  elements,  their  history, 
transformation,  influence,  and  try  to  grasp  up  the 
philosophy  of  this  little  atom  of  matter,  and  he  will 
learn  to  bow  before  the  thought  of  Him,  and  say 
there  is  no  searching  of  his  understanding.  If  there 
are  other  orders  of  beings  higher  than  ourselves, 
their  Idea  of  God  must  include  elements  above  our 
reach.  The  finite  approximates,  but  cannot  reach 
the  Infinite. 

In  criticising  the  conception  of  God,  I  would  not 
attempt  the  fool's  task,  to  define  and  describe  God's 


MAN  NOT  THL:   MEASURE  OF  GOD.  169 

nature,  but  to  separate  man's  Idea  of  II im  from  all 
Other  ideas ;  not  to  tell  all  in  God  that  answers  to 
the  Idea  in  man,  — that  of  course  is  impossible,  but 
to  separate  the  eternal  Idea  from  the  transient  con- 
ception ;  to  declare  the  positive  and  necessary  exist- 
ence of  this  Idea  in  man  ;  of  its  Object  out  of  man, 
while  I  deny  the  existence  of  any  limitation  of  hu- 
man personality,  or  of  our  anthropomorphitic  con- 
sciousness in  the  Deity. 


22 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    RELATION    OF    NATURE    TO    GOD. 

To  determine  the  relation  of  man  to  God  it  is 
well  to  determine  first  the  relation  of  God  to  Na- 
ture —  the  material  world  —  that  we  may  have 
the  force  of  the  analogy  of  that  relation  to  aid 
us.  Conscious  man  may  be  very  dissimilar  with 
unconscious  matter,  but  yet  their  relations  to  God 
are  analogous.  Both  depend  on  him.  To  make 
out  the  point  and  decide  the  relation  of  God  to 
Nature  we  must  start  from  the  Idea  of  God,  which 
was  laid  down  above,  a  Being  of  Infinite  Power, 
Wisdom  and  Goodness.  Now  to  make  the  matter 
clear  as  noonday,  God  is  either  present  in  all  space, 
or  not  present  in  all  space.  If  infinite,  he  must  be 
present  everywhere  in  general,  and  not  limited  to 
any  particular  spot,  as  an  old  writer  so  beautifully 
says  :  "  Even  Heaven  and  the  Heaven  of  Heavens 
cannot  contain  Him."^  Heathen  writers  are  full  of 
such  expressions.^  God,  then,  is  universally  pres- 
ent in  the  world  of  matter.  He  is  the  substantial- 
ity of  matter.     The  circle  of  his  being  in  space 

'  See,  too,  the  beautiful  statement  in  Ps.  CXXXIX.  1-13. 
*  See  those  in  Cudworth,  Chap.  IV.  §  2t?,  and  elsewhere. 


GOD  WORKS  IN  NATURE.  171 

has  an  infinite  radius.  We  cannot  say  Lo  here  or 
lo  there,  for  he  is  everywhere.  He  fills  all  nature 
with  his  overflowing  currents  ;  without  him  it  were 
not.  His  Presence  gives  it  existence  ;  his  Will  its 
law  and  force  ;  his  Wisdom  its  order  ;  his  Good- 
ness its  beauty. 

It  follows  unavoidably,  from  the  Idea  of  God, 
that  he  is  present  everywhere  in  space ;  not  tran- 
sienthj  present,  now  and  then,  but  immanentlij 
present,  always;  his  centre  here;  his  circumfer- 
ence nowhere ;  just  as  present  in  the  eyelash  of  an 
emmet  as  in  the  Jewish  holy  of  holies,  or  the  sun 
itself.  We  may  call  common  what  God  has  cleansed 
with  his  presence  ;  but  there  is  no  corner  of  space 
so  small  ;  no  atom  of  matter  so  despised  and  little 
but  God,  the  Infinite,  is  there. ^ 

Now,  to  push  the  inquiry  nearer  the  point.  The 
nature  of  God,  as  represented  by  our  Idea  of  him, 
is  divisible  or  not  divisible.  If  infinite  he  must  be 
indivisible,  a  part  of  God  cannot  be  in  this  point  of 
space,  and  another  in  that ;  his  Power  in  the  sun, 
his  Wisdom  in  the  moon,  and  his  Goodness  in  the 
earth.  He  must  be  wholly,  vitally,  essentially  pres- 
ent as  much  in  one  point  as  in  another  point,  or  all 
points  ;  as  essentially  present  in  each  point  at  any 
one  moment  of  time  as  at  any  other  or  all  moments 
of  lime.  He  is  there  not  idly  present  but  actively, 
as  much  now  as  at  creation.  Divine  omnipotence 
can  neither  slumber  nor  sleep.     Was  God  but  tran- 

'  See  the  judicious  remarks  of  Lord  Brougham,  Dialogue  on  Instinct, 
Dial.  II.  near  the  end. 


172  GOD  THE  LIGHT  OF  NATURE. 

siently  active  in  matter  at  creation,  his  action  now 
passed  away?  From  the  Idea  of  him  it  follows  his- 
activity  is  immanent  in  the  world.  "  Our  Father 
worketh  hitherto,"  and  for  this  reason  Nature  works, 
and  so  has  done  since  its  creation.  There  is  no 
spot  the  foot  of  hoary  Time  has  trod  on,  but  it  is 
instinct  with  God's  activity.  He  is  the  ground  of 
Nature ;  what  is  permanent  in  the  passing  ;  what 
is  real  in  the  apparent.  All  nature  then  is  but  an 
exhibition  of  God  to  the  senses  ;  the  veil  of  smoke 
on  which  his  shadow  falls ;  the  dew-drop  in  which 
the  heaven  of  his  magnificence  is  poorly  imaged. 
The  Sun  is  but  a  sparkle  of  his  splendor.  End- 
less and  without  beginning  flows  forth  the  stream 
of  divine  influence  that  encircles  and  posseses  the 
all  of  things.  From  God  it  comes,  to  God  it  goes. 
The  material  world  is  perpetual  growth  ;  a  contin- 
ual transfiguration,  renewal  that  never  ceases.  Is 
this  without  God  ?  Is  it  not  because  God,  who  is 
ever  the  same,  flows  into  it  without  end  ?  It  is  the 
fullness  of  God  that  flows  into  the  crystal  of  the 
rock,  the  juices  of  the  plant,  the  life  of  the  emmet 
and  the  elephant.  He  penetrates  and  pervades  the 
world.  All  things  are  full  of  Him,  who  surrounds 
the  sun,  the  stars,  the  universe  itself;  "goes  through 
all  lands,  the  expanse  of  oceans,  and  the  profound 
Heaven."^ 

'  Virgil,  Georgic,  IV.  222.  See  many  passages  cited  by  Cudworth, 
Chap.  IV.  §  31,  p.  664,  et  seq.  455,  et  seq.,  and  the  passages  collected 
from  Tschaleddin  Rumi  by  Rilckert,  in  his  Gedichte,  and  Tholuck  BlU- 
thensammlung  aus  der  morgenlandischen  Mystik. 


C;OD  REVEALED  IN  NATURE.  173 

Inanimate  matter,  by  itself,  is  dependent ;  inca- 
pable of  life,  motion,  or  even  existence.  To  assert 
the  opposite  is  to  make  it  a  God.  In  its  present 
state  it  has  no  will.  Yet  there  is  in  it  existence, 
motion,  life.  The  smallest  molecule  in  a  ray  of 
polarized  light  and  the  largest  planet  in  the  system 
exist  and  move  as  if  possessed  of  a  Will,  powerful, 
regular.  Irresistible.  The  powers  of  Nature,  then, 
that  of  Gravitation,  Electricity,  Growth,  what  are 
they  but  modes  of  God's  action  ?  If  we  look  deep 
into  the  heart  of  this  mystery,  such  must  be  the 
conclusion.  Nature  is  moved  by  the  first  Mover  ; 
beautified  by  him  who  is  the  Sum  of  Beauty  ;  ani- 
mated by  him  who  is  of  all  the  Creator,  Defence, 
and  Life.^ 

Such,  then,  is  the  relation  of  God  to  matter  up 
to  this  point.  He  is  immanent  therein  and  perpet- 
ually active.  Now  to  go  farther,  if  this  be  true,  it 
would  seem  that  the  various  objects  and  things  in 
nature  were  fitted  to  express  and  reveal  different 
degrees  and  measures  of  the  divine  influence,  so  to 
say  ;  that  this  degree  of  manifestation  in  each  de- 
pends on  the  capacity  which  God  has  primarily 
bestowed  upon  it  f  that  the  material  but  inorganic, 

'  Cud  worth  makes  three  hypotheses  ;  either,!.  All  things  happen  in 
nature  by  the  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms,  and  this  it  is  Atheism  to  sup- 
pose ;  or,  2.  There  is  in  Nature  a  formative  faculty,  "  a  plastic  nature," 
which  does  the  work  ;  or,  3.  Each  act  is  done  immediately  by  God.  He, 
it  is  well  known,  adopts  the  second  alternative.  See  Chap.  III.  §  37. 
See  also  More's  FJnchiridion  Metaphysicum,  Antidote  against  Atheism, 
Book  II.     Apol.  pro  Cartesio.  p.  115,  ct  seq. 

*  I  will  not  say  there  is  not,  in  the  abstract,  as  much  of  divine  influ- 
ence in  a  wheat-straw  as  in  a  world.  But  in  reference  to  ourselves  there 
appears  to  be  various  degrees  of  it. 


174  NATURE  OBEYS  GOD'S  PERFECT  LAW. 

the  vegetable  but  inanimate,  and  the  animal  but 
irrational  world,  received  each  as  high  a  mode  of 
divine  influence  as  its  several  nature  would  allow. 

Then,  to  sum  up  all  in  brief,  the  material  world, 
with  its  objects  sublimely  great,  or  meanly  httle,  as 
we  judge  them ;  its  atoms  of  dust,  its  orbs  of  fire ; 
the  rock  that  stands  by  the  seashore,  the  water  that 
wears  it  away  ;  the  worm,  a  birth  of  yesterday, 
which  we  trample  under  foot ;  the  streets  of  constel- 
lations that  gleam  perennial  over  head  ;  the  aspir- 
ing palm  tree,  fixed  to  one  spot,  and  the  lions  that 
are  sent  out  free,  these  incarnate  and  make  visible 
all  of  God  their  natures  will  admit.  If  man  were 
not  spiritual  and  could  yet  conceive  of  the  aggre- 
gate of  invisible  things,  he  might  call  it  God,  for  he 
could  go  no  farther. 

Now,  as  God  is  Infinite,  imperfection  is  not  to  be 
spoken  of  Him.  His  Will  therefore  —  if  we  may 
so  use  that  term  —  is  always  the  same.  As  Nature 
has  of  itself  no  power,  and  God  is  present  and  ac- 
tive therein,  it  must  obey  and  represent  his  unalter- 
able will.  Hence,  seeing  the  uniformity  of  opera- 
tion, that  things  preserve  their  identity,  we  say  they 
are  governed  by  a  law  that  never  changes.  It  is  so. 
But  this  Law  —  what  is  it  but  the  Will  of  God  ;  a 
mode  of  divine  action  ?  It  is  this  in  the  last  analy- 
sis. The  apparent  secondary  causes  do  not  prevent 
this  conclusion. 

The  things  of  Nature,  having  no  will,  obey  this 
law  from  necessity.^     They  thus  reflect  God's  im- 

'  I  use  the  term  obedience  figuratively.     Of  course  there  is  no  real  obe- 
dience without  pozcer  to  disoley. 


NATURE  OBEYS  GOD'S  PERFECT  LAW.  1 75 

age  and  make  real  his  conception  —  if  we  may  use 
such  language  with  this  application.  We  never 
in  Nature  see  the  smallest  departure  from  Nature's 
law.  The  granite,  the  grass,  keep  their  law  ; 
none  go  astray  from  the  flock  of  stars ;  fire  does  not 
refuse  to  burn,  nor  water  to  be  wet.  We  look 
backwards  and  forwards,  but  the  same  law  records 
everywhere  the  obedience  that  is  paid  it.  Our 
confidence  in  tlie  uniformity  of  Nature's  law  is 
complete,  in  other  words,  in  the  fact  that  God  is 
always  the  same  ;  his  modes  of  action  always  the 
same.  This  is  true  of  the  inorganic,  the  vegetable, 
the  animal  w^orld.^  Each  thing  keeps  its  law  with 
no  attempt  at  violation  of  it.^  From  this  obedience 
comes  the  regularity  and  order  apparent  in  Nature. 
Obeying  the  Law^  of  God,  his  omnipotence  is  on  its 
side.  To  oppose  a  law  of  Nature,  therefore,  is  to 
oppose  the  Deity.     It  is  sure  to  redress  itself. 

But  these  created  things  have  no  consciousness, 
so  far  as   we   know,  at  least  nothing  which  is  the 

'  M.  Leroux,  an  acute  and  brilliant  but  fanciful  writer,  thinks  the  ca- 
pabilities of  man  change  by  civifraation,  and,  which  is  to  the  present 
point,  that  the  animals  advance  also  ;  that  the  Bee  and  the  Beaver  are  on 
the  march  towards  perfection,  and  have  made  some  progress  already. 
However  he  may  make  out  the  case  metapliysically,  it  would  be  puzzling 
to  settle  the  matter  by  facts.  But  if  his  hypothesis  were  admissible,  it 
would  not  militate  with  the  doctrine  in  the  text. 

^  From  this  view  it  does  not  follow  that  animals  are  mere  machines, 
with  no  consciousness,  only  that  they  have  not  i'ree-will.  However, 
in  some  of  the  superior  animals  there  is  some  small  degree  of  freedom 
apparent.  The  Dog  and  the  Elephant  seem  sometimes  to  e.\ercise  a 
mind,  and  to  become  in  some  measure  emancipated,  from  their  instincts. 
On  this  curious  question,  see  Descartes,  Epist.  P.  I.  Ep.  27,  07.  Henry 
More,  Epist.  Ad.  Cartesium. 


176  NATLTRE  OBEYS  GOD'S  PERFECT  LAW. 

same  with  our  self-consciousness.  They  have  no 
moral  will ;  no  power  in  general  to  do  otherwise 
than  as  they  do.  Their  action  is  not  the  result  of 
forethought,  reflection,  judgment,  voluntary  obe- 
dience to  an  acknowledged  law.  No  one  supposes 
the  Bison,  the  Rosebush,  and  the  Moon,  reflect  in 
themselves ;  make  up  their  mind  and  say,  "  Go  to, 
now,  let  us  bring  up  our  young,  or  put  forth  our 
blossoms,  or  give  light  at  nightfall,  because  it  is 
right  to  do  so,  and  God's  law."  Their  obedience 
is  unavoidable.  They  do  what  they  cannot  help 
doing.^  Their  obedience,  therefore,  is  not  their 
merit,  but  their  necessity.  It  is  power  they  pas- 
sively yield  to  ;  not  a  duty  they  voluntarily  and 
consciousl  y  perform.  A  the  action,  therefore,  of 
the  material,  inorganic,  vegetable,  and  animal 
world  is  mechanical,  vital,  or,  at  the  utmost,  in- 
stinctive ;  not  self-conscious,  the  result  of  private 
will.^     There  is,  therefore,  no  room   for  caprice  in 

'  This  point  has  been  happily  touched  upon  by  Hooker,  Eccles.  Polity, 
Book  I.  Chap.  III.  §  2.  See  his  curious  reflections  in  the  following 
sections. 

^  I  have  not  the  presumption  to  attempt  to  draw  a  line  between  these 
three  departments  of  Nature,  nor  to  tell  what  is  the  essence  of  mechanical, 
vital,  or  instinctive  action.  I  would  only  indicate  a  distinction  that,  to 
my  mind,  is  very  plain.  But  I  cannot  pretend  to  say  where  one  ends 
and  the  other  begins.  Again,  it  may  seem  unphilosophical  to  deny  con- 
sciousness, or  even  self-consciousness  to  the  superior  animals ;  but  if 
they  possess  a  self-consciousness,  it  is  something  apparently  so  remote 
from  ours,  that  it  only  leads  to  confusion  if  both  are  called  by  the  same 
term.  The  functions  of  a  plant  we  cannot  explain  by  the  laws  of  me- 
chanical action  ;  nor  the  function  of  an  animal,  a  Dog  for  example,  by 
any  qualities  of  body.  On  this  subject  see  Whewell,  Hist.  Inductive 
Sciences,  Book  IX.  Chap.  I.-III.  Cudworth,Chap.  III.  §  37,  No.  17,  et 
eeq.,  has  shown  that  there  may  be  sentient,  and  not  mere  mechanical  life, 


GOD'S  PERFECT  LAW.  177 

this  department.  The  Crystal  must  form  itself 
after  a  prescribed  pattern  ;  the  Leaf  assume  a  given 
shape  ;  the  Bee  build  her  cell  with  six  angles. 
Tiie  mantle  of  Destiny  is  girt  about  these  things. 
To  study  the  laws  of  Nature,  therefore,  is  to  study 
the  modes  of  God's  action.  Science  becomes 
sacred,  and  passes  into  a  sort  of  devotion.  Well 
says  the  old  sage,  "  Geometry  is  the  praise  of  God." 
It  reveals  the  perfections  of  the  divine  Mind,  for 
God  manifests  himself  in  every  object  of  science,  in 
the  half-living  IMolccules  of  powder-wood  ;  in  the 
Comet  with  its  orbit  which  imagination  cannot 
surround  ;  in  the  Cones  and  Cycloids  of  the  Mathe- 
matician, that  exist  nowhere  in  the  world  of  con- 
crete things,  but  which  the  conscious  mind  carries 
thither. 

Since  all  these  objects  represent,  more  or  less, 
the  divine  mind,  and  are  in  perfect  harmony  with 
it,  and  so  always  at  one  with  God,  they  express,  it 
may  be,  all  of  deity  which  matter  in  these  three 
modes  can  contain,  and  thus  exhibit  all  of  God  that 
can  be  made  manifest  to  the  eye,  the  ear,  and  the 
other  senses  of  man.  Since  these  things  are  so, 
Nature  is   not  only  strong  and   beautiful,  but  has 


without  consciousness,  and  therefore  without  frec-jcill.  Is  not  this  near 
the  truth,  that  God  alone  is  absolutely  free,  and  man  has  a  relative  free- 
dom, the  degree  of  which  may  be  constantly  increased  ?  Taking  a  certain 
stand -point,  it  is  true,  Freedom  and  Necessity  are  the  same  thing,  and 
may  be  predicated  or  denied  of  Deity  indifferently,  thus  if  God  is  per- 
fect, all  his  action  is  perfect.  He  can  do  no  otherwise  than  as  he  docs. 
Perfection  therefore  is  his  necessity,  but  it  ia  his  freedom  none  the  less. 
Here  the  difference  is  merely  in  words. 
23 


178  RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE 

likewise  a  religious  aspect.  This  fact  was  noticed 
in  the  very  earliest  times  ;  appears  in  the  rudest 
worship,  which  is  an  adoration  of  God  in  Nature. 
It  will  move  man's  heart  to  the  latest  day,  and 
exert  an  influence  on  souls  that  are  deepest  and 
most  holy.  Who  that  looks  on  the  ocean,  in  its 
anger  or  its  play ;  who  that  walks  at  twilight  under 
a  mountain's  brow,  listens  to  the  sighing  of  the 
pines,  touched  by  the  indolent  wind  of  summer, 
and  hears  the  light  tinkle  of  the  brook,  murmuring 
its  quiet  tune,  —  who  is  there  but  feels  the  deep 
Religion  of  the  scene  ?  In  the  heart  of  a  city  we 
are  called  away  from  God.  The  dust  of  man's 
foot,'  and  the  sooty  print  of  his  fingers  are  on  all 
we  see.  The  very  earth  is  unnatural,  and  the 
Heaven  scarce  seen.  In  a  crowd  of  busy  men 
which  set  through  its  streets,  or  flow  together  of  an 
holiday ;  in  the  dust  and  jar,  the  bustle  and  strife 
of  business,  there  is  little  to  remind  us  of  God. 
Men  must  build  a  cathedral  for  that.  But  every- 
where in  nature,  we  are  carried  straightway  back 
to  Him.  The  fern,  green  and  growing  amid  the 
frost ;  each  little  grass  and  lichen  is  a  silent  me- 
mento. The  first  bird  of  spring,  and  the  last  rose 
of  summer  ;  the  grandeur  or  the  dulness  of  evening 
and  morning  ;  the  rain,  the  dew,  the  sunshine  ;  the 
stars  that  come  out  to  watch  over  the  farmer's  rising 
corn ;  the  birds  that  nestle  contentedly,  brooding 
over  their  young,  quietly  tending  the  little  strug- 
glers  with  their  beak,  —  all  these  have  a  religious 
significance  to  a  thinking  soul.    Every  violet  blooms 


•* 


OF  NATURAL  SCENERY.  179 

of  God,  each  lily  is  fragrant  with  the  presence  of 
deity.  The  awful  scenes,  of  storm,  and  lightning 
and  thunder,  seem  but  the  sterner  sounds  of  the 
great  concert,  wherewith  God  speaks  to  man.  Is 
this  an  accident  ?  Ay,  earth  is  full  of  such  acci- 
dents. When  the  seer  rests  from  religious  thought, 
or  when  the  world's  temptations  make  his  soul 
tremble,  and  though  the  spirit  be  willing  the  flesh 
is  weak  ;  when  the  perishable  body  weighs  down 
the  mind,  musing  on  many  things ;  when  he  wishes 
to  draw  near  to  God,  he  goes,  not  to  the  city  ; 
there  conscious  men  obstruct  him  with  their  works  ; 
but  to  the  meadow,  spangled  all  over  with  flowers, 
and  sung  to  by  every  bird ;  to  the  mountain, 
"  visited  all  night  by  troops  of  stars ;"  to  the  ocean, 
the  undying  type  of  shifting  phenomena  and  un- 
changing law ;  to  the  forest,  stretching  out  moth- 
erly arms,  with  its  mighty  growth  and  awful  shade, 
and  here  in  the  obedience  these  things  pay,  in  their 
order,  strength,  beauty,  he  is  encountered  front  to 
front,  with  the  awful  presence  of  Almighty  power. 
A  voice  cries  to  him  from  the  thicket,  "  God  will 
provide."  The  Bushes  burn  with  deity.  Angels 
minister  to  him.  There  is  no  mortal  pang,  but  it 
is  allayed  by  God's  fair  voice  as  it  whispers,  in  na- 
ture, still  and  small,  it  may  be,  but  moving  on  the 
face  of  the  deep,  and  bringing  light  out  of  darkness. 


"  Oh  joy  that  in  our  embers, 
Is  something  that  doth  live, 
That  Nature  yet  remembers 
What  was  so  fujjitive." 


180  ^     GOD  IN  NATURE. 

Now  to  sum  up  the  result.  It  seems  from  the 
very  Idea  of  God  that  he  must  be  infinitely  present 
in  each  point  of  space.  This  immanence  of  God 
in  matter  is  the  basis  of  his  influence  ;  this  is  modi- 
fied by  the  capacities  of  the  objects  in  nature ;  all 
of  its  action  is  God's  action  ;  its  laws  modes  of  that 
action.  The  imposition  of  a  law  then,  which  is 
perfect,  and  is  also  perfectly  obeyed,  though  blindly 
and  without  self-consciousness,  seems  to  be  the  mea- 
sure of  God's  relation  to  matter.  Its  action  there- 
fore is  only  mechanical,  vital,  or  instinctive,  not 
voluntary  and  self-conscious.  From  the  nature  of 
these  things,  it  must  be  so. 


CHAPTER  III. 

STATEMENT  OF  THE  ANALOGY  DRAWN  FROM  GOD's  RELATION 
TO  NATURE. 

Now  if  God  be  present  in  matter,  the  analogy  is 
that  he  is  also  present  in  man.  But  to  examine 
this  point  more  closely,  let  us  set  out  as  before  from 
the  Idea  of  God.  If  he  have  not  the  limitations  of 
matter,  but  is  Infinite,  as  the  Idea  declares,  then 
he  pervades  Spirit  as  well  as  Space  ;  is  in  man  as 
well  as  out  of  him.  If  it  follows  from  the  Idea  that 
he  is  immanent  in  the  material  world  —  in  a  moss ; 
it  follows  also  that  he  must  be  immanent  in  the 
spiritual  world  —in  a  man.  If  he  is  immanently  ac- 
tive, and  thus  totally  and  essentially  present,  in  each 
corner  of  space,  and  each  atom  of  creation,  then  is 
he  as  universally  present  in  all  spirit.  If  the  re- 
verse be  true,  then  he  is  not  omnipresent,  therefore 
not  Infinite,  and  of  course  not  God.  The  Infinite 
God  must  fill  each  point  of  Spirit  as  of  Space. 
Here  then  in  God's  presence  in  the  soul,  is  a  basis 
laid  for  his  direct  influence  on  man  ;  as  his  presence 
in  Nature  is  the  basis  of  his  direct  influence  there. 

As  in  nature  his  influence  was  modified  only  by 


182  GOD   IN   MAN. 

the  capacities  of  material  things,  so  here  must  it 
be  modified  only  by  the  capabilities  of  spiritual 
things  ;  there  it  assumed  the  forms  of  mechanical, 
vital  and  instinctive  action  ;  here  it  must  ascend  to 
the  form  of  voluntary  and  self-conscious  action. 
This  conclusion  follows  undeniably  from  the  anal- 
ogy of  God's  presence  and  activity  in  matter.  It 
follows  as  necessarily  from  the  Idea  of  God,  for  as 
he  is  the  materiality  of  matter,  so  is  he  the  spiritu- 
ality of  spirit. 


,* 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    GENERAL    RELATION    OF    SUPPLY    TO    WANT. 

We  find  in  Nature  that  every  want  is  naturally 
supplied.  That  is,  there  is  something  external  to 
each  created  being  to  answer  all  the  internal  wants 
of  that  being.  This  conclusion  could  have  been 
anticipated  without  experience,  since  it  follows 
from  the  perfections  of  the  Deity,  that  all  his  direct 
works  must  be  perfect.  Experience  shows  this  is 
the  rule  in  nature.  We  never  find  a  race  of  ani- 
mals destitute  of  what  is  most  needed  for  them, 
wandering  up  and  down,  seeking  rest  and  finding 
none.  What  is  most  certainly  needed  for  each,  is 
most  bountifully  provided.  The  supply  answers 
the  demand.  The  natural  circumstances,  there- 
fore, attending  a  race  of  animals,  for  example,  are 
perfect.  The  animal  keeps  perfectly  the  law,  or 
condition  of  its  nature.  The  result  of  these  per- 
fect circumstances  on  the  one  hand,  and  perfect 
obedience  on  the  other,  is  this,  —  each  animal  in 
its  natural  state,  attains  its  legitimate  end,  reaches 
perfection  after  its  kind.     Thus  every  Sparrow  in 


184  ANIMAL  WANTS   SUPPLIED. 

a  flock  is  perfect  in  the  qualities  of  a  Sparrow,  at 
least,  such  is  the  general  rule ;  the  exceptions  to  it 
are  so  rare  they  only  seem  to  confirm  that  rule. 

Now  to  apply  this  general  maxim  to  the  special 
case  of  man.  We  are  mixed  beings,  spirits  wedded 
to  bodies.  Setting  aside  the  religious  nature  of  man 
for  the  moment,  and  for  the  present  purpose  dis- 
tributing our  faculties  into  the  animal,  intellectual, 
affectional  and  moral,  let  us  see  the  relation  be- 
tween man's  fourfold  wants  and  the  supply  thereof. 
We  have  certain  animal  wants,  such  as  the  desire 
of  food,  shelter  and  comfort.  Our  animal  welfare, 
even  our  animal  existence,  depends  on  the  relation 
of  the  world  to  these  wants,  on  the  condition  that 
they  are  supplied.  Now  we  find  in  the  world  of 
nature,  exterior  to  ourselves,  a  supply  for  these  de- 
mands. It  is  so  placed  that  man  can  reach  it  for 
himself.  To  speak  in  general  terms,  there  is  not  a 
natural  want  in  our  body  which  has  not  its  corres- 
ponding supply,  placed  out  of  the  body.  There  is 
not  even  a  disease  of  the  body,  brought  upon  us  by 
disobedience  of  its  law,  but  there  is  somewhere  a 
remedy,  at  least  an  alleviation  of  that  disease. 
The  peculiar  supply  of  peculiar  wants  is  provided 
most  abundantly  when  most  needed,  and  where 
most  needed :  furs  in  the  North,  spices  in  the 
South,  antidotes  where  the  poison  is  found.  God 
is  a  bountiful  parent  and  no  step-father  to  the 
body,  and  does  not  pay  off,  to  his  obedient  children, 
a  penny  of  satisfaction  for  a  pound  of  want.  Nat- 
ural supply  balances  natural  want  the  world  over. 


INSTINCT  AND   UNDERSTANDING.  185 

But  this  is  not  all.  IIow  shall  man  find  the 
supply  that  is  provided  ?  It  will  be  useless  unless 
there  is  some  facnlly  to  mediate  between  it  and 
the  want.  Now  man  is  furnished  with  a  faculty  to 
perform  this  office.  It  is  instinct  which  we  have  in 
common  with  the  lower  animals,  and  understanding 
which  we  have  more  exclusively,  at  least  no  other 
animal  possessing  it  in  the  same  degree  with  our- 
selves. Instinct  anticipates  experience.  It  acts 
spontaneously  where  we  have  no  previous  know- 
ledge, yet  as  if  we  were  fully  possessed  of  ideas. 
It  shows  itself  as  soon  as  we  are  horn,  in  the  im- 
pulse that  prompts  the  infant  to  his  natural  food. 
It  appears  complete  in  all  animals.  It  looks  only 
forward,  and  is  a  perfect  guide  so  far  as  it  goes. 
The  young  chick  pecks  adroitly  at  the  tiny  worm 
it  meets  the  first  hour  it  leaves  the  shell. ^  It  needs 
no  instruction.  The  lower  animals  have  nothing 
but  instinct  for  their  guide.  It  is  sufficient  for  their 
purpose.  They  act,  therefore,  without  reflection  ; 
from  necessity,  and  are  subordinate  to  their  instinct, 
and  therefore  must  always  remain  in  the  instinctive 
state.^  Children  and  savages  —  who  are  in  some 
respects    the   children    of   the    human    race  —  act 


'  See  Lord  Brougham,  Dialogues  on  instinct,  for    some    remarkable 
facts. 

«  Whewell,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  II.  Pt.  I.  Book  IX.  Ch.  III.  Man  may  sub- 
due the  instinct  of  an  animal,  and  apparently  improve  the  creature,  by 
superinducing  his  own  understanding  upon  it.  The  pliant  nature  of 
dogs  and  horses  enables  them  to  yield  to  him  in  this  case.  But  they  are 
not  rtally  improved  in  the  qualities  of  a  dog  or  a  horse,  but  only  become 
caricatures  of  their  master's  caprice. 
24 


1 86  A  GUIDE  TO  THE  SUPPLY. 

chiefly  by  instinct,  but  constantly  approach  the  de- 
velopment of  the  understanding. 

This  acts  in  a  different  way.  It  generalizes  from 
experience  ;  makes  an  induction  from  facts  ;  a  de- 
duction from  principles.  It  looks  both  backwards 
and  forwards.  The  man  of  understanding  acts 
from  experience,  reflection,  forethought  and  habit. 
If  he  had  no  other  impelling  principle,  all  his  action 
must  be  of  this  character.  But  though  understand- 
ing be  capable  of  indefinite  increase,  instinct  can 
never  be  wholly  extirpated  from  this  compound 
being,  man.  The  most  artificial  or  cultivated  feels 
the  twinges  of  instinctive  nature.  The  lower  ani- 
mals rely  entirely  on  instinct;  the  savage  chiefly 
thereon,  while  the  civilized  and  matured  man  de- 
pends mostly  on  understanding  for  his  guide.  As 
the  sphere  of  action  enlarges,  which  takes  place  as 
the  boy  outgrows  his  childhood,  and  the  savage 
emerges  from  barbarism,  instinct  ceases  to  be  an 
adequate  guide,  and  the  understanding  sponta- 
neously develops  itself  to  take  its  place. ^ 

In  respect  then,  to  man's  animal  nature,  this  fact 
remains,  that  there  is  an  external  supply  for  each 
internal  want,  and  a  guide  to  conduct  from  the 
want  to  the  supply.  This  guide  is  adequate  to  the 
purpose.  When  it  is  followed,  and  thus  the  con- 
ditions of  our  animal  nature  complied  with,  the 
want  is  satisfied,  becomes  a  source  of  pleasure,  a 


'  See  some  profound    remarks   on   the   force   of  the  instinctive   life 
among  savages,  in  Bancroft,  ubi  sup.  Ch.  XXII. 


INTELLECTUAL  WANTS  SUPPLIED.  187 

means  of  development.  In  this  case  there  is  no- 
thing miraculous  intervening  between  the  desire 
and  its  gratification.  ]\Ian  is  hungry.  Instinct 
leads  him  to  the  ripened  fruit.  He  eats  and  is  ap- 
peased. The  satisfaction  of  the  want  comes  natu- 
rally, by  a  regular  law,  which  God  has  imposed  upon 
the  constitution  of  man.  He  is  blessed  by  obeying, 
and  cursed  by  violating  this  law.  God  himself 
does  not  transcend  this  law,  but  acts  through  it,  by 
it,  in  it.  We  observe  the  law  and  obtain  what  we 
need.  Thus  for  every  point  of  natural  desire  in 
the  body,  there  is  a  point  of  natural  satisfaction  out 
of  the  body.  This  guide  conducts  from  one  to  the 
other,  as  a  radius  connects  the  centre  with  the  cir- 
cumference. Our  animal  welfare  is  complete  when 
the  two  are  thus  brought  into  contact. 

Now  the  same  rule  may  be  shown  to  hold  good 
in  each  other  department  into  which  we  divided  the 
human  faculties.  There  is  something  without  us  to 
correspond  to  each  want  of  the  intellect.  This  is 
found  in  the  objects  of  nature  ;  in  the  sublime,  the 
useful,  the  beautiful,  the  common  things  we  meet; 
in  the  ideas  and  conceptions  that  arise  unavoidably 
when  man,  the  thinking  mihject,  comes  intellectually 
in  contact  with  external  things,  the  object  of  thought. 
We  turn  to  these  things  instinctively,  at  first, 


"  The  eije, —  it  cannot  choose  but  see, 
We  cannot  bid  the  ear  be  slill ; 
Our  bodies  feel  where'er  they  be. 
Against  or  with  our  will." 


188  INTELLECTUAL,  MORAL,  AND 

Man  is  not  sufficient  for  himself  intellectually,  more 
than  physically.  He  cannot  rely  wholly  on  what 
he  is.  There  is  at  first  nothing  in  man  but  man 
himself,  a  being  of  multiform  tendencies,  and  many 
powers  lying  latent,  germ  sheathed  in  germ.  With- 
out some  external  object  to  rouse  the  senses,  ex- 
cite curiosity,  to  stimulate  the  understanding,  in- 
duce reflection,  exercise  reason,  judgment,  ima- 
gination, —  all  these  faculties  would  sleep  in  their 
causes,  unused  and  worthless  in  the  soul.  Obey- 
ing the  instinctive  tendency  of  the  mind,  which 
impels  to  thought,  keeping  its  laws,  we  gain 
satisfaction  for  the  intellectual  desires.  One  af- 
ter another  the  faculties  come  into  action,  grow 
up  to  maturity  and  intellectual  welfare  is  com- 
plete with  no  miracle,  but  by  obedience  to  the  laws 
of  mind. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  affectional  and 
moral  nature  of  man.  There  is  something  with- 
out us  to  answer  the  demands  of  the  Affections 
and  the  Moral  Sense,  and  we  turn  instinctively 
to  them.  Does  God  provide  for  the  animal 
wants  and  no  more  ?  He  is  no  step-father,  but 
a  bountiful  parent  to  the  intellectual,  affectional 
and  moral  elements  of  his  child.  There  is  a 
point  of  satisfaction  out  of  these,  for  each  point 
of  desire  in  them,  and  a  guide  to  mediate  be- 
tween the  two.  This  general  rule  may  then  be 
laid  down,  That  for  each  animal,  intellectual,  af- 
fectional, moral  want  of  man,  there  is  a  supply  set 


.* 


AFFECTIONAL  WANTS  SUPPLIED.  189 

within  his  reach,  and  a  guide  to  connect  the  two  ; 
that  no  miracle  is  needed  to  supply  the  want  ;  but 
satisfaction  is  given  soon  as  the  guide  is  followed 
and  the  law  kept,  which  instinct  or  the  under- 
standing reveals. 


CHAPTER  V. 

STATEMENT  OF  THE  ANALOGY  FROM  THIS  RELATION. 

Now  it  was  said  before,  that  the  religious  was 
the  deepest,  highest,  strongest  element  in  man,  and 
since  the  wants  of  the  lower  faculties  are  so  abund- 
antly provided  with  natural  means  of  satisfying 
them,  the  Analogy  leads  us  irresistibly  to  conclude, 
that  the  higher  faculty  would  not  be  neglected  ;  that 
here  as  elsewhere  there  must  be  a  natural  and  not 
miraculous  supply  for  natural  wants  ;  a  natural  guide 
to  conduct  from  one  to  the  other,  and  natural  laws, 
or  conditions,  to  be  observed  and  natural  satisfaction 
to  be  obtained  in  this  way ;  that  as  God  was  no 
step-father,  but  a  bountiful  parent  to  the  lower  ele- 
ments, so  he  must  be  to  the  higher  ;  that  as  there 
was  a  point  of  satisfaction  out  of  the  body,  mind 
and  heart,  for  each  desire  in  it,  so  there  must  be  a 
point  of  satisfaction  out  of  the  soul,  for  each  desire 
in  the  soul.  Is  it  God's  way  to  take  care  of  oxen 
and  leave  man  uncared  for  ?  In  a  system  where 
every  spot  on  an  insect's  wing  is  rounded  as  dili- 
gently, and  as  carefully  finished  off  as  a  world,  are 


SUPPLY  FOR   SriRlTUAL  WANTS.  191 

wc  to  suppose  the  Soul  of  man  is  left  without  natu- 
ral protection  ?  If  there  is  a  law,  a  permanent  mode 
of  divine  action,  whereby  each  atom  of  dust  keeps 
its  place  and  holds  its  oAvn,  surely  we  are  not  to 
dream  the  soul  of  man  is  left  with  no  law  for  its 
religious  life  and  satisfaction. 

To  draw  the  parallels  still  closer.  By  the  reli- 
gious consciousness  we  feel  the  want  of  some  assured 
support  to  depend  on,  who  has  infinite  Power  to 
sustain  us,  infinite  Wisdom  to  provide  for  us,  infinite 
Goodness  to  cherish  us  ;  as  we  must  know  the  icill 
of  Him  on  ichom  ive  depend,  and  thus  determine 
what  is  religious  truth  and  religious  duty,  in  order 
that  we  may  do  that  duty,  receive  that  truth,  obey 
that  will,  and  thus  obtain  rest  for  the  soul,  and  the 
highest  spiritual  welfare,  by  knowing  and  fulfilling 
its  conditions,  so  Analogy  teaches  that  in  this,  as 
in  the  other  case,  there  must  be  a  supply  for  the 
wants,  and  some  plain,  regular,  and  not  miraculous 
means,  accessible  to  each  man,  whereby  he  can  get 
a  knowledge  of  this  Support,  discover  this  Will,  and 
thus  by  observing  the  proper  conditions,  obtain  the 
highest  spiritual  welfare. 

This  argument  for  a  direct  connection  between 
man  and  God,  is  only  rebutted  in  one  of  these 
two  ways.  Either,  first,  by  denying  that  man  has 
any  religious  wants  ;  or  secondly,  by  affirming  that 
he  is  himself  alone  a  supply  to  them,  without  need 
of  reliance  on  any  thing  independent  of  himself. 
The  last  is  contrary  to  philosophy,  for  theorelicallij 
speaking,  by  nature,  there  is  nothing  in  man,  but  man 


192  OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED. 

himself,  his  tendencies,  and  powers  of  action  and 
reception  ;  in  the  religious  element  there  is  nothing 
but  the  religious  element,  as,  theoretically  speaking, 
by  nature,  there  is  in  the  body  nothing  but  the 
body  ;  in  hunger  nothing  but  hunger.  To  make 
man  dependent  on  nothing  but  man  ;  the  rehgious 
sentiment  on  nothing  but  the  religious  sentiment, 
and  therefore  sufficient  for  itself,  is  quite  as  absurd 
as  to  make  the  body  dependent  only  on  the  body  ; 
the  appetite  of  hunger  on  nothing  but  hunger,  suffi- 
cient to  satisfy  itself.  Besides,  our  consciousness, 
and  above  all  our  religious  consciousness,  is  that  of 
dependence.  The  soul  feels  its  direct  dependence 
on  God,  as  much  as  the  body  sees  its  own  direct 
dependence  on  matter. 

If  the  one  statement  is  contrary  to  philosophy,  the 
other  is  contrary  to  fact.  We  feel  religious  wants  ; 
the  history  of  man  is  a  perpetual  expression  of 
these  wants  ;  an  effort  for  satisfaction.  It  cannot 
be  denied  that  we  need  something  that  shall  bear 
the  same  relation  to  the  religious  sentiment,  which 
food  bears  to  the  palate,  light  to  the  eye,  sound  to 
the  ear,  beauty  to  the  imagination,  truth  to  the 
understanding,  friendship  to  the  heart,  and  duty  to 
conscience.  How  shall  we  pass  from  the  want  to 
its  satisfaction  ?  Now  the  force  of  the  Analogy  is 
this,  it  leads  us  to  expect  such  a  natural  satisfaction 
for  spiritual  wants,  as  we  have  for  the  humbler  wants. 
The  very  wants  themselves  imply  the  satisfaction  ; 
soon  as  we  begin  to  act,  there  awakes  by  nature,  a 
Sentiment  of  God.     Reason  gives  us  a  distinct  Idea 


SUPPLY  FOR  SPIRITUAL  WANTS.  193 

of  Him,  and  from  this  Idea  also  it  follows  that  he 
must  supply  these  wants. 

The  question  then  comes  as  to  the  fact,  Is  there, 
or  is  there  not  a  regular  law,  by  which  the  religious 
wants  are  supplied,  as  by  a  regular  law^  the  body's 
wants  are  met?  Now  animated  by  the  natural 
trust,  or  Aiith,  which  is  the  spontaneous  action  of 
the  religious  sentiment,  we  should  say,  Yes,  it  must 
be  so.  God  takes  care  of  the  sparrow's  body  ;  can 
he  neglect  man's  soul  ?  Then  reasoning  again  from 
the  general  analogy  of  God's  providence,  as  before 
shown,  and  still  more  from  the  Idea  of  God,  as 
above  laid  down,  we  say  again.  It  must  be  so. 
Man  must,  through  the  religious  sentiment,  have  a 
connection  w^ith  God,  as  by  the  senses  with  matter. 
He  is,  relative  to  us,  the  object  of  the  soul,  as  much 
as  matter  is  the  object  of  the  senses.  As  God  has 
an  influence  on  passive  and  unconscious  matter,  so 
he  must  have  on  active  and  conscious  man.  As 
this  action  in  the  one  case  is  only  modified  by  the 
conditions  of  matter,  so  will  it  be  in  the  other,  only 
by  the  conditions  of  man.  As  no  obedient  animal 
is  doomed  to  wander  up  and  down,  seeking  rest, 
but  finding  none  ;  so  no  obedient  man  can  be  left 
hopeless,  forlorn,  without  a  supply,  without  a  guide. 

Now  it  might  be  supposed  that  the  spontaneous 
presentiment  of  this  supply  for  our  spiritual  de- 
mands ;  this  twofold  argument  from  the  Idea  of  God 
and  the  Analogy  of  his  action  in  general,  would 
satisfy  both  the  spontaneous  and  the  reflective  mind, 

25 


194  DOUBTS  OF  THrJMKING  MEN 

convincing  them  of  man's  general  capability  of  a 
connection  with  God,  of  receiving  truth,  in  a  regu- 
lar and  natural  way  from  him,  by  revelation,  inspi- 
ration, suggestion,  or  by  what  other  name  we  may 
call  the  joint  action  of  the  divine  and  human  mind. 
Such  indeed  is  the  belief  of  nations  in  an  early  and 
simple  state.  It  is  attested  by  the  literature,  tradi- 
tions and  monuments  of  all  primitive  people.  They 
believed  that  God  held  converse  with  man.  He 
spoke  in  the  voices  of  nature  ;  in  signs  and  omens ; 
in  dreams  by  night ;  in  deep,  silent  thoughts  by  day ; 
skill,  strength,  wisdom,  goodness,  were  referred  to 
Him.  The  highest  function  of  man  was  God's  Gift. 
He  made  the  Laws  of  Minos,  Moses,  Numa,  Rha- 
damanthus  ;  He  inspires  the  Poet,  Artist,  Patriot ; 
works  with  the  righteous  everywhere.  Had  Feti- 
chism  no  meaning  ?  Was  Polytheism  only  a  lie  with 
no  truth  at  the  bottom  ?  Prayers,  sacrifices,  fasts, 
priesthoods,  show  that  men  believed  in  intercourse 
with  God.  Good,  simple-hearted  men  and  women, 
who  live  lives  of  piety,  believe  it  now,  and  never 
dream  it  is  a  great  philosophical  truth,  which  lies  in 
their  mind.     They  wonder  any  body  should  doubt  it. 

But  yet  among  thinkirig  men,  who  have  thought 
just  enough  to  distrust  instinct,  but  not  enough  to 
see  by  the  understanding  the  object  which  instinct 
discloses,  especially  among  thinking  Englishmen 
and  Americans,  a  general  doubt  prevails  on  this 
point. 

The  material  world  is  before  our  eyes ;  its 
phenomena  are  obvious  to   the   senses,  and   most 


,* 


FAVORED   BY   THE   BIGOTS.  195 

men  having  active  senses,  which  develop  before 
the  understanding,  and  the  lower  faculties  of  intel- 
lect also,  somewhat  active,  get  pretty  clear  notions 
about  these  phenomena,  though  not  of  their  cause 
and  philosophy.  But  as  the  soul  is  rarely  so  active 
as  the  senses ;  as  the  whole  si)iriiual  nature  is  not 
often  so  well  developed  as  the  sensual,  so  spiritual 
phenomena  are  little  noticed  ;  very  i'ew  men  have 
clear  notions  about  them.  Hence  to  many  men  all 
spiritual  and  religious  matters  are  vague.  "  Per- 
haps yes  and  perhaps  no,"  is  all  they  can  say. 
Then  again  the  matter  is  made  worse,  for  they 
hear  extravagant  claims  made  in  relation  to  spirit- 
ual things  and  intercourse  with  God.  One  man 
says,  he  was  healed  of  a  fever,  or  saved  from 
drowning,  not  by  the  medicine,  or  the  boatman, 
but  by  the  direct  interposition  of  God  ;  another 
will  have  it  that  he  has  direct  and  miraculous  illu- 
minations, though  it  is  plain  he  is  still  sitting  in 
darkness.  This  bigot  would  destroy  all  human 
knowledge  that  there  may  be  clean  paper  to  receive 
the  divine  word,  miraculously  written  thereon ;  that 
fanatic  bids  men  trust  the  wisdom  that  is  miracu- 
lous an4  even  at  variance  with  human  faculties. 
Both  the  bigot  and  the  fanatic  condemn  Science  as 
the  "  Pride  of  Reason,"  and  talk  boastingly  of  their 
special  revelations,  their  neiv  light,  the  signs  and 
wonders  they  have  seen  or  heard  of  to  attest  this 
revelation.  The  sincere  man  of  good  sense  is  dis- 
gusted by  these  things,  and  asks  if  there  be  no 
Pride  of  Folly  as  well  as  Reason,  and  no  revelation 


196  MATERIAL  NOTIONS  FIXED. 

of  nonsense  from  the  man's  own  brain,  that  is  mis- 
taken as  an  eternal  truth  coming  winged  from  the 
Godhead?  He  rests,  therefore,  in  his  notions  of 
mere  material  things ;  will  see  nothing  which  he 
cannot  see  through ;  believe  nothing  he  cannot 
handle.  These  material  notions  have  already  be- 
come systematized ;  and  so  far  as  there  is  any  phi- 
losophy accredited  amongst  us,  it  is  one  which 
grows  mainly  out  of  this  sensual  way  of  looking  at 
things  ;  a  philosophy  which  logically  denies  the 
possibility  of  inspiration,  or  intercourse  with  God, 
except  through  a  miracle,  that  shall  transcend  the 
faculties  of  man. 

Now  on  this  subject  of  inspiration  there  are  but 
three  views  possible.  Each  of  these  is  supported 
by  no  one  writer  exclusively  or  perfectly ;  but  by 
many  taken  in  the  aggregate.  Let  us  examine 
each  of  them  as  it  appears  in  recent  times,  with  its 
philosophy  and  logical  consequences.  However,  it 
is  to  be  remembered  that  all  conclusions  which  fol- 
low logically,  are  not  to  be  charged  on  men  who 
admit  the  premises. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE    RATIONALISTIC   AHEW,    OR    NATURALISM. 

This  allows  that  the  original  powers  of  Nature, 
as  shown  in  the  inorganic,  the  vegetable,  and  the 
animal  world,  all  came  from  God  at  the  first ; 
that  he  is  a  principle,  either  material  or  spirit- 
ual, separate  from  the  world,  and  independent 
thereof.  He  made  the  world,  and  all  things,  in- 
cluding man,  and  stamped  on  them  certain  laws, 
which  they  are  to  keep.^  He  was  but  transiently 
present  and  active  in  nature  at  creation  ;  is  not 
immanently  present  and  active  therein.  He  has 
now,  nothing  to  do  with  the  world  but  —  to  see  it 
go.  Here,  then,  is  God  on  the  one  side  ;  on  the 
other,  Man  and  Nature.  But  there  is  a  great  gulf 
fixed  between  them,  over  which  there  passes, 
neither  God  nor  man. 

'  There  is  another  form  of  Naturalism  which  denies  tlie  existence  of  a 
God  separate,  or  separable  from  the  universe.  Since  this  system  would 
annihilate  all  Religion,  it  may  be  called  irreligious  Naturalism ;  with 
that  1  have  now  nothing  to  do.  Some  have  been  called  Rationalists,  who 
deny  that  God  is  separate  from  the  world.     See  above,  Book  I. 


198  METAPHYSICS  OF  NATURALISM. 

This  theory  teaches  that  man,  m  addition  to  his 
organs  of  perception,  has  certain  intellectual  facul- 
ties by  which  he  can  reason  from  effect  to  cause  ; 
can  discover  truth,  which  is  the  statement  of  a  fact ; 
from  a  number  of  facts  in  science  can  discern  a 
scientific  law,  the  relation  of  thing  to  thing ;  from 
a  number  of  facts  in  morals,  can  learn  the  relation 
of  man  to  man ;  deduce  a  moral  law,  which  shall 
teach  the  most  expedient  and  profitable  way  of 
managing  affairs.  Both  its  scientific  and  its  moral 
statement,  of  facts  rest  solely  on  experience,  and 
never  go  beyond  their  precedents.  Still  farther,  it 
allows  that  man  can  find  out  there  is  a  God,  by 
reasoning  experimentally  from  observations  in  the 
material  world,  and  metaphysically  also,  from  the 
connection  of  notions  in  the  mind.  But  this  con- 
clusion is  only  to  be  reached,  in  either  case,  by  a 
process  that  is  long,  complicated,  tortuous,  and  so 
difficult  that  but  one  man  in  some  thousands  has 
the  necessary  experimental  knowledge,  and  but 
one  ill  some  millions,  the  metaphysical  subtlety  re- 
quisite to  go  through  it,  and  become  certain  that 
there  is  a  God.  Its  notion  of  God  is  this,  a  Being 
who  exists  as  the  Power,  Mind  and  Will  that 
caused  the  universe. 

The  metaphysical  philosophy  of  this  system  may 
be  briefly  stated.  In  man,  by  nature,  there  is 
nothing  but  man.  There  is  but  one  channel  by 
which  knowledge  can  come  into  man,  that  is  sensa- 
tion ;  perception  through  the  senses.  That  is  an 
assumption,   nobody  pretends  it  is  proved.     This 


ITS  SCIENCE.  MORALS,  GOD.  199 

knowledge  is  modified  hy  reflection,  the  mind's  pro- 
cess of  ruminating  upon  the  knowledge  which  sen- 
sation affords.  At  any  given  time,  therefore,  if  we 
examine  what  is  in  man,  we  find  nothing  which  has 
not  first  been  in  the  senses.  Now  the  senses  con- 
verse only  with  finite  phenomena.  Reflection  — 
what  can  it  get  out  of  these  ?  The  Absolute  ? 
The  premise  does  not  warrant  the  conclusion. 
Something  "  as  good  as  Infinite  ?  "  Let  us  see. 
It  makes  a  scientific  law  a  mere  generalization 
from  observed  facts,  which  it  can  never  go  beyond. 
Its  science,  therefore,  is  in  the  rear  of  observation ; 
we  do  not  know  whether  the  next  stone  shall  fall 
to  the  ground  or  from  it.  All  it  can  say  of  the 
universality  of  any  law  of  science,  is  this,  "  So  far 
as  we  have  seen,  it  is  so."  It  cannot  pass  from 
the  Particular  to  the  Universal.  It  makes  a  moral 
law  the  result  of  external  experience  ;  merely  an 
induction  from  moral  facts ;  not  the  affirmation  of 
man's  moral  nature  declaring  the  eternal  rule  of 
Right.  It  learns  morality  by  seeing  what  plan  suc- 
ceeds best  in  the  long  run.  Its  morality,  therefore, 
is  Selfishness.  A  man  in  a  new  case,  for  which 
he  can  find  no  precedents,  knows  not  what  to  do. 
He  is  never  certain  he  is  right  till  he  gets  the  re- 
ward. Its  moral  law  at  present,  like  the  statute 
law,  is  the  slowly  elaborated  product  of  centuries 
of  experience.  It  pretends  to  find  out  God,  as  a 
law  in  science,  solely,  by  reasoning  from  effect  to 
cause ;  from  a  plan  to  the  designer.  Then  on 
what  does  a  man's  belief  in   God   depend  ?     On 


200  ITS  PROOF  OF  A  GOD. 

man's  nature,  acting  spontaneously  ?  No ;  for 
there  is  nothing  in  man,  but  man,  and  nothing 
comes  in  but  sensations,  which  do  not  directly  give 
us  God.  It  depends  on  reflection,  argument,  that 
process  of  reasoning  mentioned  before.  Now  ad- 
mitting that  sensation  affords  sufficient  premise  for 
the  conclusion,  there  is  a  difficulty  in  the  way. 
The  man  must  either  depend  on  his  own  reasoning, 
or  that  of  another.  In  the  one  case  he  may  be 
mistaken,  in  an  argument,  so  long,  crooked,  and 
difficult.  '  T  is  at  best  an  inference.  The  "  Hy- 
pothesis of  a  God,"  as  some  impiously  call  it  — 
may  thus  rest  on  no  better  argument  than  the 
hypothesis  of  Vortices,  or  Epicycles.  In  the  other 
case,  if  we  trust  another  man,  he  may  be  mis- 
taken ;  still  worse,  may  design  to  deceive  the  in- 
quirer, as,  we  are  told,  the  Heathen  Sages  did. 
Where,  then,  is  the  certain  conviction  of  any  God 
at  all  ?  This  theory  allows  none.  Its  "  proof  of 
the  existence  of  God  "  is  a  proof  of  the  possibility 
of  a  God  ;  perhaps  of  its  probability.  Surely 
no  more. 

But  the  case  is  yet  worse.  In  any  argumenta- 
tion there  must  be  no  more  expressed  in  the  con- 
clusion than  is  logically  and  confessedly  implied  in 
the  premises.  When  finite  phenomena  are  the  only 
premises,  whence  comes  the  Idea  of  Infinite  God  ? 
It  denies  that  man  has  any  Idea  of  the  Absolute, 
Infinite,  Perfect.  Instead  of  this,  it  allows  only  an 
accumulative  notion,  formed  from  a  series  of  con- 
ceptions of  what  is  finite  and  imperfect.     The  little 


ITS  GOD  ONLY  FINITE.  201 

we  can  know  of  God  came  from  reasoning  about 
objects  of  sense.  Its  notion  of  God  is  deduced 
from  empirical  observation.  What  notion  of  a  God 
can  rest  legitimately  on  that  basis  ?  Nature  is 
finite.  To  infer  an  infinite  Author  is  false  logic. 
We  see  but  in  part,  and  have  not  grasped  up  this 
sum  of  things,  nor  seen  how  seeming  evil  consists 
with  real  good,  nor  accounted  for  the  great  amount 
of  misery,  apparently  unliquidated,  in  the  world  ; 
therefore  Nature  is  imperfect  to  man's  eye.  Why 
infer  a  perfect  Author  from  an  imperfect  work  ? 
Injustice  and  cruelty  are  allowed  in  the  world. 
How  then  can  its  Maker  be  relied  on  as  just  and 
merciful  ?  Let  there  be  nothing  in  the  conclusion 
which  is  not  in  the  premises. 

This  theory  gives  us  only  a  finite  and  imperfect 
God,  which  is  no  God  at  all.  He  cannot  be  trust- 
ed out  of  sight ;  for  its  faith  is  only  an  inference  from 
what  is  seen.  Instead  of  a  religious  sentiment  in 
man,  which  craves  all  the  perfections  of  the  God- 
head ;  reaches  out  after  the  Infinite  "  first  Good, 
first  Perfect,  and  first  Fair,"  it  gives  us  only  a  tenden- 
cy to  reverence  or  fear  what  is  superior  to  ourselves, 
and  above  our  comprehension ;  a  tendency  which 
the  Bat  and  the  Owl  have  in  common  with  Socrates 
and  Fenelon.  It  makes  man  the  slave  of  his  or^an- 
ization.  Free-will  is  not  possible.  His  highest 
aim  is  self-preservation  ;  his  greatest  evil  death.  It 
denies  the  immortality  of  man,  and  foolishly  asks 
"  proofs"  of  the  fact.     Its  finite  God  is  not  to  be 

26 


202  ITS   MORALS   AND   RELIGION. 

trusted,  except  under  bonds  to  give  us  what  we 
ask  for. 

It  makes  no  difference  between  Good  and  Evil ; 
Expedient  and  Inexpedient  are  the  better  words. 
These  are  to  be  learned  only  by  long  study  and 
much  cunning.  All  men  have  not  the  requisite 
skill  to  find  out  moral  and  religious  doctrines, 
and  no  means  of  j^roving  either  in  their  own  heart ; 
therefore  they  must  take  the  word  of  their  appoint- 
ed teachers  and  philosophers,  who  "  have  investi- 
gated the  matter;"  found  there  is  "  an  expedient 
way"  for  men  to  follow,  and  a  "God"  to  punish 
them  if  they  do  not  follow  it.  In  moral  and  reli- 
gious matters  the  mass  of  men  must  rely  on  the 
authority  of  their  teachers.  Millions  of  men,  who 
never  made  an  astronomical  observation,  believe 
the  distance  between  the  Earth  and  the  Sun  is 
what  Newton  or  Laplace  declares  it  to  be.  Why 
should  not  men  take  moral  and  religious  doctrines 
on  the  same  evidence  ?  It  is  true,  astronomers  have 
differed  a  little  —  some  making  the  Earth  the  centre, 
some  the  Sun — and  divines  still  more.  But  men 
must  learn  the  moral  law  as  the  statute  law.  The 
State  is  above  each  man's  private  notions  about 
good  and  evil,  and  controls  these,  as  well  as  their 
passions.  Man  must  act  ahvays  from  mean  and  self- 
ish views,  never  from  Love  of  the  Good,  the  Beau- 
tiful, the  True. 

This  system  would  have  religious    forms,    and 
ceremonies  to  take  up  the  mind  of  the   people  ; 


ITS    IDEA   OF   GOD.  203 

moral  precepts,  and  religious  creeds,  "  published  by 
authority,"  to  keep  man  iVoni  unprofitable  crimes  ; 
an  established  Church,  like  the  Jail  and  the  Gal- 
lows, a  piece  of  state-machinery.  It  is  logical  in 
this,  for  it  fears  that,  without  such  a  provision,  the 
sensual  nature  would  overlay  the  intellectual  ;  the 
few  religious  ideas  common  men  could  get,  would 
be  so  shadowy  and  uncertain,  and  men  be  so  blind- 
ed by  Prejudice,  Superstition,  and  Fancy,  or  so  far 
misled  by  Passion  and  ignorant  Selfishness,  that 
nothing  but  want  and  anarchy  would  ensue.  It 
tells  men  to  pray.  None  can  escape  the  conviction 
that  prayer,  vocal  or  silent,  put  up  as  a  request,  or 
felt  as  a  sense  of  supplication,  is  natural  as  hunger 
and  thirst,  or  tears  and  smiles.  Even  an  Atheist^ 
talks  of  the  important  physiological  functions  of 
prayer.  This  theory  makes  prayer  a  Soliloquy  of 
the  man  ;  a  thinking  with  the  upper  part  of  the 
head  ;  a  sort  of  moral  gymnastics.  Thereby  we 
get  nothing  from  God.  He  is  the  other  side  of  the 
world.  "  He  is  a  journeying,  or  pursuing,  or  perad- 
venture  he  sleepeth."  Prayer  is  useful  to  the  wor- 
shiper as  the  poet's  frenzy,  w^hen  he  apostrophizes 
a  Mountain,  or  the  Moon,  and  w^orks  himself  into  a 
rapture,  but  gets  nothing  from  the  Mountain  or  the 
Moon,  except  what  he  carried  out. 

In  a  w^ord,  this  theory  reduces  the  Idea  of  God 
to  that  of  an  abstract  cause,  and  excludes  this  cause 
both  from  man  and  the  world.     It  has  only  a  finite 

'  M.  Comte. 


204  REPRESENTATIVE  OF  NATURALISM. 

God,  which  is  no  God  at  all,  for  the  two  terms  can- 
cel each  other.  It  has  only  a  selfish  morality,' 
which  is  no  morality  at  all,  for  the  same  reason.  It 
reduces  the  soul  to  the  aggregate  functions  of  the 
flesh ;  Providence  to  a  law  ;  Infinity  to  a  dream  ; 
Religion  to  priestcraft;  Prayer  to  an  apostrophe; 
Morality  to  making  a  good  bargain  ;  Conscience  to 
cunning.  It  denies  the  possibility  of  any  connec- 
tion between  God  and  man.  Revelation  and  In- 
spiration it  regards  as  figures  of  speech,  by  which 
we  refer  to  an  agency  purely  ideal  what  was 
the  result  of  the  senses  and  matter  acting  thereon. 
Men  calling  themselves  inspired,  speaking  in  the 
name  of  God,  were  deceivers,  or  deceived.  Pro- 
phets, the  religious  Geniuses  of  the  world,  mistook 
their  fancies  for  revelations  ;  embraced  a  cloud  in- 
stead of  a  Goddess,  and  produced  only  misshapen 
dreams.  Judged  by  this  system,  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
was  a  pure-minded  fanatic,  who  knew  no  more 
about  God  than  Peter  Bayle  and  Pomponatius,  but 
yet  did  the  world  service,  by  teaching  the  result  of 
his  own  or  others'  experience,  as  revelations  from 
God,  accompanied  with  the  promise  of  another  life, 
which  is  reckoned  a  pleasant  delusion,  useful  to 
keep  men  out  of  crime,  a  clever  auxiliary  of  the 
powers  that  be. 

This  System  has  perhaps  never  been  held  in  all 
its  parts,  by  any  one  man,  but  each  portion  has 
often  been  defended,  and  all  its  parts  go  together 
and  come  unavoidably  from  that  notion,  that  there 


AT  THE  ROOT  OF  OUR  THEOLOGY.  205 

is  nothing  in  man  which  was  not  first  in  the  senses.^ 
The  best  representatives  of  this  school  were,  it  may 
be,  the  French  Materialists  of  the  last  century,  and 
some  of  the  English  Deists.  The  latter  term  is 
applied  to  men  of  tlie  most  various  character  and 
ways  of  thinking.  Some  of  them  were  most  excel- 
lent men  in  all  respects ;  men  who  did  mankind 
great  service  by  exposing  the  fanaticism  of  the  Su- 
perstitious, and  by  showing  the  absurdities  embrac- 
ed by  many  of  the  Christians.  Some  of  them  were 
much  more  religious  and  heavenly-minded  than  their 
opponents,  and  had  a  theology  much  more  Christian, 
which  called  Goodness  by  its  proper  name,  and 
worshiped  God  in  lowliness  of  heart,  and  a  divine 
life.  But  the  spirit  of  this  system  takes  different 
forms  in  different  men.  It  appears  in  the  cold  mo- 
rality and  repulsive  religion  of  Dr.  Priestley,  who 
was  yet  one  of  the  best  of  men  ;  in  the  skepticism 
of  Hume  and  his  followers,  which  has  been  a  useful 
medicine  to  the  Church ;  in  the  selfish  system  of 
Paley,  far  more  dangerous  than  the  doubts  of  Hume 
or  the  scoffs  of  Gibbon  and  Voltaire  ;  in  the  coarse, 
vulgar  materialism  of  Hobbes,  who  may  be  taken 
as  one  of  the  best  representatives  of  the  system. 

It  is  obvious  enough,  that  this  system  of  Natural- 
ism is  the  philosophy  which  lies  at  the  foundation 
of  the  popular  theology  in  New  England  ;  that  it  is 
very  little  understood   by  the   men,  out  of  pulpits 


'  See  tlie  judicious  observationa   of  Shaftesbury',  eighth   Letter  to  a 
Student. 


206  ITS  NEGATIVE  MERIT. 

and  in  pulpits,  who  adhere  to  it ;  who,  while  they 
hold  fast  to  the  theory  of  the  worst  of  the  English' 
Deists  —  though  of  only  the  worst ;  while  they  deny 
the  immanence  of  God  in  matter  and  man,  and 
therefore  take  away  the  natural  possibility  of  inspi- 
ration, and  cling  to  that  system  which  justifies  the 
Doubt  of  Hume,  the  Selfishness  of  Paley,  the  coarse 
Materialism  of  Hobbes,  —  are  yet  ashamed  of  their 
descent,  and  seek  to  point  out  others  of  a  quite 
different  spiritual  complexion,  as  the  lineal  descend- 
ants of  that  ancient  stock. 

This  system  has  one  negative  merit.  It  can,  as 
such,  never  lead  to  fanaticism.  Those  sects,  or 
individuals,  who  approach  most  nearly  to  pure 
Naturalism,  have  never  been  accused,  in  religious 
matters,  of  going  too  fast  or  too  far.  But  it  has  a 
positive  excellence.  It  lays  great  stress  on  the 
human  mind,  and  cultivates  the  understanding  to 
the  last  degree.  However,  its  Philosophy,  its  The- 
ology, its  Religion,  are  of  the  senses,  and  the  senses 
alone.^ 

'  I  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  refer  particularly  to  the  authors 
representing  this  system.  I  have  rather  taken  pains  to  express  their 
doctrine  in  my  own  words,  lest  individuals  should  be  thought  responsible 
for  the  sins  of  the  system.  One  may  read  many  works  of  divinity,  and 
see  that  this  philosophy  lay  unconsciously  in  the  writer's  mind.  I  do 
not  mean  to  insinuate,  that  many  persons  fully  and  knowingly  believe 
this  doctrine,  but  that  they  are  yet  governed  by  it,  under  the  modifica- 
tion treated  of  in  the  next  chapter.  Locke  has  sometimes  been  charged 
with  follies  of  this  character,  but  unjustly,  as  it  seems  to  me,  for  though 
many  passages  do  certainly  look  that  way,  others  are  of  a  quite  spiritual 
tendency.  See  King's  Life  of  Locke,  Vol.  I.  p.  3G6,  et  seq.  and  his  the- 
ological writings. 


mf 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  ANTI-RATIONALISTIC    VIEW,    OR     SUPERNATURALISM. 

This  system  differs  in  many  respects  from  the 
other  ;  but  its  philosophy  is  at  bottom  the  same.  It 
denies  that  by  natural  action  there  can  be  any  thing 
in  man  which  was  not  first  in  the  senses.  Whatever 
transcends  the  senses  can  come  to  man  only  by  a 
miracle.  To  develop  the  natural  side  of  the  theory 
it  sets  God  on  the  one  side  and  man  on  the  other. 
However  it  admits  the  immanence  of  God  in  mat- 
ter, and  talks  very  little  about  the  laws  of  matter, 
which  it  thinks  require  revision,  amendment,  and 
even  repeal,  as  if  the  nature  of  things  changed,  or 
God  grew^  wiser  by  experiment.  It  does  not  see 
that  if  God  is  always  the  same,  and  immanent  in 
nature,  the  laws  of  nature  can  neither  change  nor 
be  changed.  It  limits  the  power  of  man  still  far- 
ther than  the  former  theory.  It  denies  that  he  can, 
of  himself,  discover  the  existence  of  God  ;  or  find 
out  that  it  is  better  to  love  his  brother  than  to  hate 
him,  to  subject  the  Passions  to  Reason,  Desire  to 
Duty,  rather  than  to  subject  Reason  to   Passion, 


208  ABSURDITY  OF  SUPERNATURALISM. 

Duty  to  Desire.^  Man  can  find  out  all  that  is 
needed  for  his  animal  and  intellectual  welfare,' 
with  no  miracle  ;  but  can  learn  nothing  that  is 
needed  for  his  moral  and  religious  welfare.  He 
can  invent  the  steam  engine,  and  calculate  the  orbit 
of  Halle j's  comet ;  but  cannot  tell  Good  from  Evil, 
nor  determine  that  there  is  a  God.  The  Unneces- 
sary is  given  him  ;  the  Indispensable  he  cannot  get 
by  nature.  Man,  therefore,  is  the  veriest  wretch 
in  creation.  His  mind  forces  him  to  inquire  on 
religious  matters,  but  brings  him  into  doubt,  and 
leaves  him  in  the  very  slough  of  Despond.  He 
goes  up  and  down  sorrowing,  seeking  rest,  but 
finding  none.  Nay  ;  it  goes  farther  still,  and  de- 
clares that,  by  nature,  all  men's  actions  are  sin, 
hateful  to  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  teaches  that  God  works  a 
miracle  from  time  to  time,  and  makes  to  man  a 
positive  revelation  of  moral  and  religious  truth, 
which  man  could  not  otherwise  gain.  Its  history 
of  revelations  is  this  :  God  revealed  his  own  exist- 
ence in  a  visible  form  to  the  first  man ;    taught  him 


'  Some  Supernaturalists  admit  that  man  by  nature  can  find  out  the 
most  important  religious  truths,  in  the  way  set  down  before,  and  some 
admit  a  moral  sense  in  man.  Others  deny  both.  A  recent  writer  denies 
that  man  can  find  by  the  light  of  Nature  anv  theological  truth. 
Natural  theology  is  not  possible.  See  Irons  On  the  whole  Doctrine  of 
Final  Causes.  Lond.  1836,  p.  34,  129,  and  passim.  His  introductory 
chapter  on  modern  Deism  is  very  curious.  He  has  some  excellent  re- 
marks, for  there  are  two  kingdoms  of  philosophy  in  him,  but  wishes  to 
advance  what  he  calls  revealed  religion,  at  the  expense  of  the  founda- 
tion of  all  religion.  The  Ottoman  King  never  thinks  himself  secure  on 
the  throne  till  he  has  slain  all  his  brothers. 


REVELATIO?^  BY  MEDIATORS.  209 

religious  and  moral  duties  by  words  orally  spoken. 
Tlie  first  man  communicated  the  knowledge  to  his 
descendants,  from  whom  the  tradition  of  the  fact 
has  spread  over  all  the  world.  Men  know  there  is 
a  God,  and  distinction  between  right  and  wrong, 
onlv  by  hearsay,  as  they  know  there  was  a  Flood 
in  the  time  of  Noah,  or  Deucalion.  The  first  man 
sinned,  and  fell  from  the  state  of  frequent  commu- 
nion with  God.  Revelations  have  since  become 
rare  ;  exceptions  in  the  history  of  man.  However 
as  man  without  a  connection  with  the  Infinite  must 
soon  perish,  God  continued  to  make  miraculous 
revelations  to  one  single  people.  To  them  he 
gave  laws,  religious  and  civil ;  made  predictions, 
and  accompanied  each  revelation  by  some  miracu- 
lous sign,  for  without  it  none  could  tell  truth  from  a 
lie.  Other  nations  received  reflections  of  this  light, 
which  was  directly  imparted  to  the  favored  people. 
At  length  he  made  a  revelation  of  all  religious  and 
moral  truth,  by  means  of  his  Son,  a  divine  and  mi- 
raculous being,  both  God  and  man,  and  confirmed 
the  tidings  by  miracles  the  most  surprising.  As  this 
revelation  is  to  last  forever,  it  has  been  recorded 
miraculously,  and  preserved  for  all  coming  time. 
The  persons  who  received  direct  communication 
miraculously  from  God,  are  of  course  mediators  be- 
tween Him  and  the  human  race. 

Now  to  live  as  religious  men,  we  must  have  a 
knowledge  of  religious  truth  :  for  this  we  must  de- 
pend alone  on  these  mediators.  Without  them  we 
have   no  access  to  God.     They  have  established  a 

27 


210  THE  SAD  CONDITION  OF  MAN. 

new  relation  between  man  and  God.  But  they  are 
mortal,  and  have  deceased.  However,  their  say- 
ings are  recorded  by  miraculous  aid.  A  knowledge 
of  God's  will,  of  morality  and  religion,  therefore,  is 
only  to  be  got  at,  by  studying  the  documents  which 
contain  a  record  of  their  words  and  works,  for  the 
Word  of  God  has  become  the  letter  of  Scripture. 
We  can  know  nothing  of  God,  religion  or  morals 
at  first  hand.  God  was  but  transiently  present 
in  a  small  number  of  the  race,  and  has  now  left  it 
altogether. 

This  theory  forgets  that  a  verbal  revelation  can 
never  communicate  a  simple  idea,  like  that  of  God, 
Justice,  Love,  Religion,  more  than  a  word  can  give 
a  deaf  man  an  idea  of  sound.  It  makes  inspiration 
a  very  rare  miracle,  confined  to  one  nation,  and  to 
some  scores  of  men  in  that  nation,  who  stand  be- 
tween us  and  God.  We  cannot  pray  in  our  own 
name,  but  in  that  of  the  mediator,  who  hears  the 
prayer,  and  makes  intercession  for  us.  It  exalts 
certain  miraculous  persons,  but  degrades  man.  In 
prophets  and  saints,  in  Moses  and  Jesus,  it  does  not 
see  the  possibility  of  the  race  made  real,  but  only 
the  miraculous  work  of  God.  Our  duty  is  not  to 
inquire  into  the  truth  of  their  word.  Reason  is  no 
judge  of  that.  We  must  put  faith  in  all  which  all 
of  them  tell  us,  though  they  contradict  each  other 
never  so  often.  Thus  it  makes  an  antithesis  be- 
tween Faith  and  Knowledge,  Reason  and  Revela- 
tion. It  denies  that  common  men,  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  can  get  at  Truth,  and  God,  as  Paul 


FOUJ^DATION  OF  SUPERNATURALISM.  21  1 

and  John  in  the  first  century.  It  sacrifices  Reason, 
Conscience  and  Love  to  tlic  words  of  the  miraculous 
men,  and  thus  makes  its  mediator  a  tyrant,  who 
rules  over  the  soul  by  external  authority,  restricting 
Reason,  Conscience  and  Love  ;  not  a  brotiier,  who 
acts  in  the  soul,  by  waking  its  dormant  powers, 
disclosing  truth,  and  leading  others  by  a  divine  life, 
to  God,  the  Source  of  Light.  It  says  the  words  of 
Jesus  are  true  because  he  spoke  them  ;  not  that  he 
spoke  them  because  true.  It  relies  entirely  on  past 
times  ;  does  not  give  us  the  absolute  Religion,  as  it 
exists  in  man's  nature,  and  the  Ideas  of  the  Al- 
mighty, only  an  historical  mode  of  ^^  orship,  as  lived 
out  here  or  there.  It  says  the  canon  of  Revelation 
is  closed  ;  God  will  no  longer  act  on  man  as  here- 
tofore. We  have  come  at  the  end  of  the  feast ;  are 
born  in  the  latter  days  and  dotage  of  mankind,  and 
can  only  get  light,  by  raking  amid  the  ashes  of  the 
past,  and  blowing  its  brands,  now  almost  extinct. 
It  denies  that  God  is  present  and  active  in  all  spirit 
as  in  all  space  —  thus  denies  that  he  is  Infinite.  In 
the  miraculous  documents  it  gives  us  an  objective 
standard,  "  the  only  infallible  rule  of  religious  faith 
and  practice."  These  mediators  are  greater  than 
the  soul ;  the  Bible  the  master  of  Reason,  Con- 
science, and  the  Religious  Sentiment.  They  stand 
in  the  place  of  God. 

Men  ask  of  this  system.  How  do  you  know 
there  is  in  man  nothing  but  the  product  of  sensa- 
tion, or  miraculous  tradition  ;  that  man  cannot  ap- 
proach God  except  by  miracle  ;  that  these  mediators 


212        THE  TRUTH  IN  SUPERNATURAL!  SM 

received  truth  miraculouslj  ;  taught  all  truth ;  no- 
thing but  the  truth  ;  that  you  have  their  words,' 
pure  and  unmixed  in  your  scriptures  ;  that  God 
has  no  farther  revelation  to  make  ?  The  answ^er  is 
—  we  find  it  conveniefit  to  assume  all  this,  afid  ac- 
cordingly have  banished  Reason  from  the  premises ; 
she  asked  troublesome  questions.  We  condescend  to 
no  proof  of  the  facts.  You  must  take  our  ivord  for 
that.  Thus  the  main  doctrines  of  the  theory  rest 
on  assumptions  ;  on  no  facts. 

This  system  represents  the  despair  of  man  grop- 
ing after  God.  The  religious  sentiment  acts,  but 
is  crippled  by  a  philosophy  poor  and  sensual.  Is 
man  nothing  but  a  combination  of  live  senses,  and 
a  thinking  machine,  to  grind  up  and  bolter  sensa- 
tions, and  learn  of  God  only  by  hearsay  ?  The  God 
of  Supernaturalism  is  a  God  afar  off;  its  Religion 
worn  out  and  second-handed.  We  cannot  meet 
God  face  to  face.  In  one  respect  it  is  worse  than 
Naturalism ;  that  sets  great  value  on  the  faculties 
of  man,  which  this  depreciates  and  profanes.  But 
all  systems  rest  on  a  truth,  or  they  could  not  be  ; 
this  on  a  great  truth,  or  it  could  not  prevail  widely. 
It  admits  the  immanence  of  God  in  Nature,  and 
declares,  also,  that  mankind  is  dependent  on  Him, 
for  religious  and  moral  truth  as  for  all  things  else  ; 
has  a  connection  with  God  who  really  guides,  edu- 
cates and  blesses  the  race,  for  he  is  transiently  pre- 
sent therein.  The  doctrine  of  miraculous  events, 
births,  persons,  deaths  and  the  like,  this  is  the  veil 
of  Poetry  drawn  over  the  face  of  Fact.     It  has  a 


DENIES  THE  LIGHT  OF    NATURE.  213 

truth  not  admitted  by  Naturalism.  Now  only  a  few 
"  thinking''^  men  even  in  fancy  can  be  satisfied  with- 
out a  connection  with  God,  so  Naturahsm  is  always 
confined  to  a  few  reflective  and  cultivated  persons ; 
while  the  mass  of  men  believe  in  the  supernatural 
theory,  at  least,  in  the  truth  it  covers  up.  Its 
truth  is  of  great  moment.  Its  vice  is  to  make  God 
transiently  active  in  man,  not  immanent  in  him ; 
restrict  the  divine  presence  and  action  to  times, 
places  and  persons.  It  overlooks  the  fact  that  if 
religious  truth  be  necessary  for  all,  then  it  must 
either  have  been  provided,  for  and  put  in  the  reach 
of  all,  or  else  there  is  a  fault  in  the  divine  plan. 
Then  again,  if  God  gives  a  natural  supply  for  the 
lower  wants,  it  is  probable,  to  say  the  least,  he  will 
not  neglect  the  higher.  Now  for  the  religious  con- 
sciousness of  Man,  a  knowledge  of  two  great  truths 
is  indispensable  ;  namely,  a  knowledge  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  Infinite  God,  and  of  the  duty  we  owe 
to  Him,  for  these  two  are  implied  in  all  religious 
teaching  and  life.  Now  one  of  two  things  must  be 
admitted,  and  a  third  is  not  possible  ;  either  man 
can  discover  these  two  truths  hy  the  light  of  nature, 
or  he  cannot.  If  the  latter  be  the  case,  then  is  man 
the  most  hopeless  of  all  beings.  Revelation  of  these 
truths  is  confined  to  a  few ;  it  is  indispensably  ne- 
cessary to  all.  Accordingly  the  first  hypothesis  is 
generally  admitted  by  the  supernaturalists,  in  ]^ew 
England  —  though  in  spite  of  their  philosophy  — 
that  these  two  truths  can  he  discovered  by  the  light 
of  nature.     Then  if  the  two  main  points,  the  prem- 


214  NATURALISM  AND  SUPERNATURALISM. 

ises  which  involve  the  whole  of  Morals  and  Reli- 
gion, lie  within  the  reach  of  man's  natural  powers, 
how  is  a  miracle,  or  the  tradition  of  a  miracle  ne- 
cessary to  reveal  the  minor  doctrines  involved  in 
the  universal  truth  ?  Does  not  the  faculty  to  dis- 
cern the  greater  include  the  faculty  to  discern  the 
less  ?  What  covers  an  acre  will  cover  a  yard. 
Where  then  is  the  use  of  the  miraculous  interposi- 
tion ? 

Neither  Naturalism  nor  Supernaturalism  legiti- 
mates the  fact  of  man's  religious  consciousness. 
Both  fail  of  satisfying  the  natural  religious  wants 
of  the  race.  Each  has  merits  and  vices  of  its  own. 
Neither  gives  for  the  Soul's  wants  a  supply  analo- 
gous to  that  so  bountifully  provided  for  the  wants 
of  the  Body,  or  the  Mind. 


.* 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    NATURAL-RELIGIOUS    VIEW,    OR    SPIRITUALISM. 

This  theory  teaches  that  there  is  a  natural  sup- 
ply for  spiritual  as  well  as  for  corporeal  wants  ; 
that  there  is  a  connection  between  God  and  the 
soul,  as  between  light  and  the  eye,  sound  and  the 
ear,  food  and  the  palate,  truth  and  the  intellect, 
beauty  and  the  imagination  ;  that  as  we  follow  an 
instinctive  tendency,  obey  the  body's  law,  get  a 
natural  supply  for  its  wants,  attain  health  and 
strength,  the  body's  welfare  ;  as  we  keep  the  law 
of  the  mind,  and  get  a  supply  for  its  wants,  attain 
wisdom  and  skill,  the  mind's  welfare,  —  so  if,  follow- 
ing another  instinctive  tendency,  we  keep  the  law 
of  the  moral  and  religious  nature,  we  get  a  supply 
for  their  wants,  moral  and  religious  truth,  obtain 
peace  of  conscience  and  rest  for  the  soul,  the  high- 
est moral  and  religious  welfare.  It  teaches  that  the 
world  is  not  nearer  to  our  bodies  than  God  to  the 
soul ;  "  for  in  him  we  live  and  move,  and  have  our 
being."  As  we  have  bodily  senses  to  lay  hold  on 
matter  and  supply  bodily  wants,  through  which  we 


216  INSPIRATION  UNIVERSAL. 

obtain,  naturally,  all  needed  material  things ;  so  we 
have  spiritual  faculties,  to  lay  hold  on  God,  and  sup-- 
ply  spiritual  wants  ;  through  them  we  obtain  all 
needed  spiritual  things.  As  we  observe  the  condi- 
tions of  the  body,  we  have  nature  on  our  side  ;  as 
we  observe  the  Law  of  the  Soul,  we  have  God  on 
our  side.  He  imparts  truth  to  all  men  who  observe 
these  conditions  ;  we  have  direct  access  to  Him, 
through  Reason,  Conscience  and  the  religious  Sen- 
timent, just  as  we  have  direct  access  to  nature, 
through  the  eye,  the  ear,  or  the  hand.  Through 
these  channels,  and  by  means  of  a  law,  certain, 
regular  and  universal  as  gravitation,  God  inspires 
men,  makes  revelation  of  truth,  for  is  not  truth  as 
much  a  phenomenon  of  God,  as  motion  of  matter  ? 
Therefore  if  God  be  omnipresent  and  omniactive, 
this  inspiration  is  no  miracle,  but  a  regular  mode  of 
God's  action  on  conscious  spirit,  as  gravitation  on 
unconscious  matter.  It  is  not  a  rare  condescension 
of  God,  but  ci  universal  uplifting  of  man.  To  ob- 
tain a  knowledge  of  duty,  man  is  not  sent  away, 
outside  of  himself  to  ancient  documents,  for  the 
only  rule  of  faith  and  practice  ;  the  Word,  is  very 
nigh  him,  even  in  his  heart,  and  by  this  Word  he  is 
to  try  all  documents  whatever.  Inspiration,  like 
God's  omnipresence,  is  not  limited  to  the  few  writers 
claimed  by  the  Jews,  Christians,  or  Mahometans, 
but  is  coextensive  with  the  race.  As  God  fills  all 
space,  so  all  spirit ;  as  he  influences  and  constrains 
unconscious  and  necessitated  matter,  so  he  inspires 
and  helps  free  and  conscious  man. 


MEDIATOR  NOT  NEEDED.  217 

This  theory  does  not  make  God  limited,  partial, 
or  capricious.  It  exalts  man.  A\  liile  it  h  )nors  the 
excellence  of  a  religious  genius,  of  a  Moses  or  a 
Jesus,  it  does  not  pronounce  their  character  mon- 
strous, as  the  supernatural,  nor  fanatical,  as  the 
rationalistic  theory ;  but  natural,  human,  and  beau- 
tiful, revealing  the  possibility  of  mankind.  Prayer, 
whether  conscious  or  spontaneous,  a  word  or  a 
feeling,  felt  in  gratitude  or  penitence,  or  joy,  or  resig- 
nation,—  is  not  a  soliloquy  of  the  man,  not  a  phy- 
siological function,  nor  an  address  to  a  deceased 
man  ;  but  a  sally  into  the  infinite  spiritual  world, 
whence  we  bring  back  light  and  truth.  There  are 
windows  towards  God,  as  towards  the  world.  There 
is  no  intercessor,  angel,  mediator  between  man  and 
God ;  for  man  can  speak  and  God  hear,  each  for 
himself.  He  requires  no  advocate  to  plead  fcr 
men,  who  need  not  pray  by  attorney.  Each  soul 
stands  close  to  the  omnipresent  God ;  may  feel  his 
beautiful  presence,  and  have  familiar  access  to  the 
All-Father ;  get  truth  at  first  hand  from  its  Author. 
Wisdom,  Righteousness,  and  Love,  are  the  Spirit  of 
God  in  the  soul  of  man ;  wherever  these  are,  and 
just  in  proportion  to  their  power,  there  is  inspiration 
from  God.  Thus  God  is  not  the  author  of  confu- 
sion, but  Concord  ;  Faith,  and  Knowledge,  and 
Revelation  and  Reason  tell  the  same  tale,  and  so 
legitimate  and  confirm  one  another.^ 


'  See   Jonathan  Edwards's  view  of  Inspiration,  in   his  sermon  on   A 
divine  Light  imparted  to  the  Soul,  &c.  Works,  cd.  Lond.  1840.  Vol.  II  , 
p.  12,  et  seq.,  and  Vol.  1.,  p.  cclxix.     No.  [20]. 
28 


218  BUT  ONE  KIND  OF  INSPIRATION. 

God's  action  on  matter  and  on  man  is  perhaps 
the  same  thing  to  Him,  though  it  appear  differently ' 
modified  to  us.  But  it  is  plain  from  the  nature  of 
things,  that  there  can  be  but  one  ki7id  of  Inspira- 
tion, as  of  Truth,  Faith,  or  Love.  It  is  the  direct 
and  intuitive  perception  of  some  truth,  either  of 
thought  or  of  sentiment :  there  can  be  but  one 
mode  of  Inspiration  ;  it  is  the  action  of  the  Highest 
within  the  soul,  the  divine  presence  imparting  light ; 
this  presence  as  Truth,  Justice,  Holiness,  Love, 
infusing  itself  into  the  soul,  giving  it  new  life  ;  the 
breathing  in  of  Deity  ;  the  in-come  of  God  to  the 
soul,  in  the  form  of  Truth  through  the  Reason,  of 
Right  through  the  Conscience,  of  Love  and  Faith 
through  the  affections  and  religious  sentiment.  Is 
Inspiration  confined  to  theological  matters  alone  ? 
Most  surely  not.  Is  Newton  less  inspired  than 
Simon  Peter  ?^ 

'  So  long  as  inspiration  is  regarded  as  purely  miraculous,  good  sense 
will  lessen  instances  of  it,  as  far  as  possible  ;  for  most  thinking  men 
feel  more  or  less  repugnance  at  believing  in  any  violation,  on  God's 
part,  of  regular  laws.  As  spiritual  things  are  commonly  less  attended 
to  than  material,  the  belief  in  miraculous  inspiration  remains  longer 
in  religious  than  secular  affairs.  A  man  would  be  looked  on  as  mad, 
who  should  claim  miraculous  inspiration  for  Newton,  as  they  have 
been  who  denied  it  in  the  case  of  Moses.  But  no  candid  man  will  doubt 
that,  humanly  speaking,  it  was  a  more  difficult  thing  to  write  the  Prin- 
cipia  than  the  Decalogue.  Man  must  have  a  nature  most  sadly  anoma- 
lous, if,  unassisted,  he  is  able  to  accomplish  all  the  triumphs  of  modern 
science,  and  yet  cannot  discover  the  plainest  and  most  important  princi- 
ples of  Religion  and  Morality  without  a  miraculous  revelation  ;  and  still 
more  so,  if  being  able  to  discover,  by  God's  natural  aid,  these  chief  and 
most  important  principles,  he  needs  a  miraculous  inspiration  to  disclose 
minor  details.  Science  is  by  no  means  indispensable,  as  Religion  and 
Morals.  The  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  if  it  is  a  real  advan- 
tage, follows  unavoidably  from  the  Idea  of  God.     The  Best  being,  he 


DEGREES  OF  INSPIRATION.  219 

Now  if  the  above  views  be  true,  there  seems  no 
ground  for  supposing  tliere  are  different  kinds  or 
modes  of  inspiration  in  different  persons,  nations  or 
ages,  in  Minos  or  Moses,  in  Gentiles  or  Jews,  in 
the  first  century  or  the  last.  If  God  be  infinitely 
perfect.  He  does  not  change  ;  then  his  modes  of 
action  are  perfect  and  unchangeable.  The  laws  of 
mind,  like  those  of  matter,  remain  immutable  and 
not  transcended.  As  God  has  left  no  age  nor  man 
destitute,  by  nature,  of  Reason,  Conscience,  Reli- 
gion, so  he  leaves  none  destitute  of  inspiration.  It 
is,  therefore,  the  light  of  all  our  being ;  the  back- 
ground of  all  human  faculties ;  the  sole  means  by 
which  we  gain  a  knowledge  of  what  is  not  seen  and 
felt,  the  logical  condition  of  all  sensual  knowledge  ; 
our  highway  to  the  world  of  spirit.  Man  cannot 
exist  without  God  more  than  matter.  Inspiration 
then,  like  vision,  must  be  everywhere  the  same 
thing  in  kind  ;  however  it  differs  in  degree^  from 
race  to  race,  from  man  to  man.  The  degree  of 
inspiration  must  depend  on  two  things  ;  first,  on  the 
natural  ability,  the  particular  intellectual,  moral, 
and  religious  endowment,  or  genius,  wherewith 
each  man  is  furnished  by  God  ;  and  next,  on  the 
use  each  man  makes  of  this  endowment.  In  one 
word,  it  depends  on  the  man's  Qumitity  of  Being, 
and  his  Quantity  of  Obedience.    Now  as  men  differ 

must  will  the  best  of  good  things ;  the  Wisest,  he  must  devise  plans  for 
that  effect ;  the  most  Powerful,  he  must  bring  it  about.  None  can  deny 
this.  Does  one  ask  another  "  proof  of  the  fact?"  Is  he  so  very  full  of 
faith  who  cannot  trust  God,  except  he  have  His  bond  in  black  and  white, 
given  under  oath  and  attested  by  witnesses  ! 


220  CONDITION  OF    INSPIRATION. 

widely  in  their  natural  endowments,  and  much  more 
widely  in  the  use  and  development  thereof,  there 
must  of  course  be  various  degrees  of  inspiration, 
from  the  lowest  sinner  up  to  the  highest  saint.  All 
men  are  not  by  birth  capable  of  the  same  degree  of 
inspiration  ;  and  by  culture,  and  acquired  character, 
they  are  still  less  capable  of  it.  A  man  of  noble 
intellect,  of  deep,  rich,  benevolent  affections,  is  by 
his  endowments  capable  of  more  than  one  less 
gifted.  He  that  perfectly  keeps  the  soul's  law,  thus 
fulfilling  the  conditions  of  inspiration,  has  more  than 
he  who  keeps  it  imperfectly ;  the  former  must 
receive  all  his  soul  can  contain  at  that  stage  of  his 
growth.  Thus  it  depends  on  a  man's  own  will,  in 
great  measure,  to  what  extent  he  will  be  inspired. 
The  man  of  humble  gifts  at  first,  by  faithful  obedi- 
ence may  attain  a  greater  degree  than  one  of  larger 
outfit,  who  neglects  his  talent.  The  Apostles  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  the  true  saints  of  all  coun- 
tries, are  proofs  of  this.  Inspiration,  then,  is  the 
consequence  of  a  faithful  use  of  our  faculties.  Each 
man  is  its  subject ;  God  its  source  ;  Truth  its  only 
test.  But  as  truth  appears  in  various  modes  to  us, 
higher  and  lower,  and  may  be  superficially  divided, 
according  to  our  faculties,  into  truths  of  the  Senses, 
of  the  Understanding,  of  Reason,  of  Conscience,  of 
the  Religious  Sentiment,  so  the  perception  of  truth 
in  the  highest  mode,  that  of  Reason,  Morals,  Reli- 
gion, is  the  highest  inspiration.  He,  then,  that  has 
the  most  of  Wisdom,  Goodness,  Religion,  the  most 
of  Truth,  in  the  highest  modes,  is  the  most  inspired. 


.♦ 


VARIOUS  FORMS  OF  INSPIRATION.  221 

Now  infallible  inspiration  can  of  course  only  be 
the  attendant  and  result  of  a  perfect  fulfilment  of 
all  the  laws  of  mind,  of  the  moral  and  the  religious 
nature ;  and  as  man's  faculties  are  limited,  it  is  not 
possible  to  man.  A  foolish  man,  as  such,  cannot 
be  inspired  to  reveal  Wisdom  ;  nor  a  wicked  man 
to  reveal  Virtue  ;  nor  an  impious  man  to  reveal 
Religion.  Unto  him  that  hath  more  is  given.  The 
poet  reveals  poetry,  the  artist  art,  the  philosopher 
science,  the  saint  religion.  The  greater,  purer, 
loftier,  more  complete  the  character,  so  is  the  inspi- 
ration ;  for  he  that  is  true  to  Conscience,  faithful  to 
Reason,  obedient  to  Religion,  has  not  only  the 
strength  of  his  own  virtue,  wisdom  and  piety,  but 
the  whole  strength  of  omnipotence  on  his  side  ;  for 
goodness,  truth  and  love,  as  we  conceive  them,  are 
not  one  thing  in  man,  and  another  in  God,  but  the 
same  thing  in  each.  Thus  man  partakes  the  divine 
nature,  as  the  Platonists,  Christians  and  Mystics 
call  it.  By  these  means  the  Soul  of  all  flows  into 
the  man ;  what  is  private,  personal,  peculiar,  ebbs 
off  before  that  mighty  influx  from  on  high.  What 
is  universal,  absolute,  true,  speaks  out  of  his  lips, 
in  rude,  homely  utterance,  it  may  be,  or  in  words 
that  burn  and  sparkle  like  the  lightning's  fiery 
flash. 

This  inspiration  reveals  itself  in  various  forms, 
modified  by  the  country,  character,  education,  pe- 
culiarity ot  him  who  receives  it,  just  as  water  takes 
the  form  and  the  color  of  the  cup  into  which  it 
flows,  and  must  needs  mingle  with  the  impurities 


22SI  DOES  NOT  DESTROY  FREEDOM. 

it  chances  to  meet.  Thus  Minos  and  Moses  were 
inspired  to  make  laws ;  David  to  pour  out  his  soul' 
in  pious  strains,  deep  and  sweet  as  an  angel's  psal- 
tery ;  Pindar  to  celebrate  virtuous  deeds  in  high 
heroic  song  ;  John  the  Baptist  to  denounce  sin  ; 
Gerson,  and  Luther,  and  Bohme,  and  Fenelon,  and 
Fox,  to  do  each  his  peculiar  work,  and  stir  the 
world's  heart,  deep,  very  deep.  Plato  and  Newton, 
Milton  and  Isaiah,  Leibnitz  and  Paul,  Mozart, 
Raphael,  Phidias,  Praxiteles,  Orpheus,  receive  into 
their  various  forms,  the  one  spirit  from  God  most 
high.  It  appears  in  action  not  less  than  speech. 
The  spirit  inspires  Dorcas  to  make  coats  and  gar- 
ments for  the  poor,  no  less  than  Paul  to  preach  the 
Gospel.  As  that  bold  man  himself  has  said, 
"  there  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same  spirit ; 
diversities  of  operations,  but  the  same  God  who 
worketh  all  in  all."  ^  In  one  man  it  may  appear  in 
the  iron  hardness  of  reasoning,  which  breaks 
through  sophistry,  and  prejudice,  the  rubbish  and 
diluvial  drift  of  time.  In  another  it  is  subdued 
and  softened  by  the  flame  of  affection  ;  the  hard 
iron  of  the  man  is  melted  and  becomes  a  stream  of 
persuasion,  sparkling  as  it  runs. 

Inspiration  does  not  destroy  the  man's  freedom, 
that  is  left  fetterless  by  obedience.  It  does  not 
reduce  all  to  one  uniform  standard,  but  Habbakuk 
speaks  in  his  own  way,  and  Hugh  de  St.  Victor  in 
his.     The  man  can  obey  or  not  obey  ;  can  quench 

'  1  Cor.  XII.  8,  et  seq. 


EFFECT  OF   INSPIRATION.  223 

the  spirit,  or  feed  it,  as  ho  will.  Thus  Jonah  flees 
from  his  duty  ;  Calchas  will  not  tell  the  truth  till 
out  of  danger;  Peter  dissemhles  and  lies.  Each  of 
these  men  had  schemes  of  his  own,  which  he  would 
carry  out,  God  willing  or  not  willing.  But  when 
the  sincere  man  receives  the  truth  of  God  into  his 
soul,  knowing  it  is  God's  truth,  then  it  takes  such 
a  hold  of  him  as  nothing  else  can  do.  It  makes 
the  weak  strong ;  the  timid  brave  ;  men  of  slow 
tongue  become  full  of  power  and  persuasion.  There 
is  a  new  soul  in  the  man,  which  takes  him  as  it 
were  by  the  hair  of  his  head,  and  sets  him  down 
where  the  idea  he  wishes  for  demands.  It  takes  the 
man  away  from  the  hall  of  comfort,  the  society  of 
his  friends ;  makes  him  austere  and  lonely ;  cruel  to 
himself,  if  need  be ;  sleepless  in  his  vigilance,  un- 
faltering in  his  will  ;  never  resting  from  his  work. 
It  takes  the  rose  out  of  the  cheek  ;  turns  the  man 
in  on  himself,  and  gives  him  more  of  truth.  Then, 
in  a  poetic  fancy,  the  man  sees  visions ;  has 
wondrous  revelations ;  every  mountain  thunders  ; 
God  burns  in  every  bush  ;  flames  out  in  the  crim- 
son cloud ;  speaks  in  the  wind  ;  descends  with 
every  dove  ;  is  All  in  All.  The  Soul,  deep-wrought 
in  its  intense  struggle,  gives  outness  to  its  thought, 
and  on  the  trees  and  stars,  the  fields,  the  floods, 
the  corn  ripe  for  the  sickle,  on  man  and  woman  it 
sees  its  burthen  writ.  The  Spirit  within  constrains 
the  man.  It  is  like  wine  that  hath  no  vent.  He 
is  full  of  the  God.  While  he  muses  the  fire  burns  ; 
his  bosom   will  scarce   hold  his   heart.     He  must 


224  POWER  OF  INSPIRATION. 

speak  or  he  dies,  though  the  earth  quake  at  his 
word.^  Timid  flesh  may  resist,  and  Moses  say,  I 
am  of  slow  speech.  What  avails  that  ?  The  Soul 
says,  Go  and  I  will  be  with  thy  mouth,  to  quicken 
thy  tardy  tongue.  Shrinking  Jeremiah,  effeminate 
and  timid,  recoils  before  the  fearful  work.  "  The 
flesh  ivill  quiver  when  the  pincers  tear."  He 
says,  I  cannot  speak.  I  am  a  child.  But  the 
great  Soul  of  All  flows  into  him  and  says.  Say  not 
"  I  am  a  child  !  "  for  I  am  with  thee.  Gird  up  thy 
loins  like  a  man,  and  speak  all  that  I  command 
thee.  Be  not  afraid  at  men's  faces,  for  I  will  make 
thee  a  defenced  city,  a  column  of  steel,  and  walls 
of  brass.  Speak,  then,  against  the  whole  land  of 
sinners ;  against  the  kings  thereof,  the  princes 
thereof,  its  people  and  its  priests.  They  may  fight 
against  thee,  but  they  shall  not  prevail ;  for  I  am 
with  thee.  Devils  tempt  the  man,  with  the  terror 
of  defeat  and  want,  with  the  hopes  of  selfish  ambi- 
tion. It  avails  nothing.  A  "  Get-thee-behind-me, 
Satan,"  brings  angels  to  help.  Then  are  the  man's 
lips  touched  with  a  live  coal  from  the  altar  of  Truth, 
brought  by  a  Seraph's  hand.  He  is  baptized  with 
the  spirit  of  fire.  His  countenance  is  like  lightning. 
Truth  thunders  from  his  tongue  ;  his  words  elo- 
quent as  Persuasion  ;  no  terror  is  terrible  ;  no  fear 
formidable.  The  peaceful  is  satisfied  to  be  a  man 
of  strife  and  contention,  his  hand  against  every 
man,  to  root  up  and  pluck  down  and  destroy,  to 

'  See  Lucan  IX.  564,  et  seq. 


TREATMENT  OF  PROPHETS.  225 

build  with  the  sword  in  one  liand  and  the  trowel  in 
the  other.  He  came  to  bring  peace,  but  he  must 
set  a  fire,  and  his  soul  is  straitened  till  his  work 
be  done.  Elisha  must  leave  his  oxen  in  the  furrow  ; 
Amos  desert  his  summer  fruit  and  his  friend  ;  and 
Bohme,  and  Bunyan,  and  Fox,  and  a  thousand 
others,  stout-hearted  and  God-inspired,  must  go 
forth  of  their  errand,  into  the  faithless  world,  to 
accept  the  prophet's  mission,  be  stoned,  hated, 
scourged,  slain.  Resistance  is  nothing  to  these 
men.  Over  them  steel  loses  its  power,  and  public 
opprobrium  its  shame  ;  deadly  things  do  not  harm 
them  ;  they  count  loss  gain  —  shame  glory  —  death 
triumph.  These  are  the  men  who  move  the  world. 
They  have  an  eye  to  see  its  follies,  a  heart  to 
weep  and  bleed  for  its  sin.  Filled  with  a  Soul 
wide  as  yesterday,  today  and  forever,  they  pray 
great  prayers  for  sinful  man.  The  wild  wail  of  a 
brother's  heart  runs  through  the  saddening  music  of 
their  speech.  The  destiny  of  these  men  is  forecast 
in  their  birth.  They  are  doomed  to  fall  on  evil 
times  and  evil  tongues,  come  when  they  will  come. 
The  Priest  and  the  Lcvite  war  with  the  Prophet 
and  do  him  to  death.  They  brand  his  name  with 
infamy  ;  cast  his  unburied  bones  into  the  Gehenna 
of  popular  shame  ;  John  the  Baptist  must  leave  his 
head  in  a  charger ;  Socrates  die  the  death  ;  Jesus 
be  nailed  to  his  cross  ;  and  Justin,  John  Huss,  and 
Jerome  of  Prague,  and  millions  of  hearts  stout  as 
these  and  as  full  of  God,  must  mix  their  last  prayers, 
their  admonition,  and   farewell  blessing,  with  the 

29 


226        INFLUENCE  OF   GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  IN  MAN. 

crackling  snap  of  fagots,  the  hiss  of  quivering  flesh, 
the  impotent  tears  of  wife  and  child,  and  the  mad 
roar  of  the  exulting  crowd.  Every  path  where 
mortal  feet  now  tread  secure,  has  been  beaten  out 
of  the  hard  flint  by  prophets  and  holy  men,  who 
went  before  us,  with  bare  and  bleeding  feet,  to 
smooth  the  way  for  our  reluctant  tread.  It  is  the 
blood  of  prophets  that  softens  the  Alpine  rock. 
Their  bones  are  scattered  in  all  the  high  places  of 
mankind.  But  God  lays  his  burthens  on  no  vulgar 
men.  He  never  leaves  their  souls  a  prey.  He 
paints  Elysium  on  their  dungeon  wall.  In  the  po- 
pulous chamber  of  their  heart,  the  light  of  Faith 
shines  brioht  and  never  dies.  For  such  as  are  on 
the  side  of  God  there  is  no  cause  to  fear. 

The  influence  of  God  in  Nature,  in  its  mechani- 
cal, vital,  or  instinctive  action,  is  beautiful.  The 
shapely  trees;  the  leaves  that  clothe  them  in  loveli- 
ness ;  the  corn  and  the  cattle  ;  the  dew  and  the 
flowers  ;  the  bird,  the  insect,  moss  and  stone,  fire 
and  water,  and  earth  and  air ;  the  clear  blue  sky 
that  folds  the  world  in  its  soft  embrace  ;  the  light 
which  rides  on  swift  pinions,  enchanting  all  it 
touches,  reposing  harmless  on  an  infant's  eyelid, 
after  its  long  passage  from  the  other  side  of  the 
universe,  —  all  these  are  noble  and  beautiful ;  they 
admonish  while  they  delight  us,  these  silent  coun- 
sellors and  sovereign  aids.  But  the  inspiration  of 
God  in  man,  when  faithfully  obeyed,  is  nobler  and 
far  more   beautiful.     It  is  not  the  passive  elegance 


INFLUENCE  OF  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  IN  MAN.       227 

of  unconscious  things  which  we  see  resulting  from 
man's  voluntary  obedience.  That  might  well  charm 
us  in  nature  ;  in  man  we  look  for  more.  Here  the 
beauty  is  intellectual,  the  beauty  of  Thought  which 
comprehends  the  world  and  understands  its  laws  ; 
it  is  moral,  the  beauty  of  Virtue,  which  overcomes 
the  world  and  lives  by  its  own  laws  ;  it  is  religious, 
the  beauty  of  Holiness,  which  rises  above  the  world 
and  lives  by  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  Life.  A  single 
good  man,  at  one  with  God,  makes  the  morning  and 
evening  sun  seem  little  and  very  low.  It  is  a  higher 
mode  of  the  divine  Power  that  appears  in  him, 
self-conscious  and  self-restrained. 

Now  this  it  seems  is  the  only  kind  of  inspiration 
which  is  possible.  It  is  coextensive  with  the  faith- 
ful use  of  man's  natural  powers.  Men  may  call  it 
miraculous,  but  nothing  is  more  natural  ;  or  they 
may  say,  it  is  entirely  human,  for  it  is  the  result  of 
man's  use  of  his  faculties  ;  but  what  is  more  divine 
than  Wisdom,  Goodness,  Religion  ?  Are  not  these 
the  points  in  which  man  and  God  conjoin  ?  If  he 
is  present  and  active  in  spirit  —  such  must  be  the 
perfect  result  of  the  action.  No  doubt  there  is  a 
mystery  in  it,  as  in  sensation,  in  all  the  functions  of 
man.  But  what  then  ?  As  a  good  man  has  said  : 
"  God  worketh  with  us  both  to  will  and  to  do." 
Reason,  Conscience,  Religion,  mediate  between  us 
and  God,  as  the  senses  between  us  and  matter.  Is 
one  more  surprising  than  the  other  ?  Is  the  one  to 
be  condemned  as  spiritual  mysticism  or  Pantheism  ? 
Then  so  is  the  other  as  material  mysticism  or  Pan- 


228  INSPIRATION  COMMONLY  BELIEVED. 

theism.     Alas,  we  know  but  in  part,  our  knowledge 
is  circumscribed  by  our  ignorance. 

Now  it  is  the  belief  of  all  primitive  nations  that 
God  inspires  the  wise,  the  good,  the  holj.^  Yes, 
that  he  works  with  man  in  every  noble  work.  No 
doubt  their  poor  conceptions  of  God  degraded  the 
doctrine  and  ascribed  to  the  deity  what  came  from 
their  disobedience  of  his  law. 

The  wisest  and  holiest  men  have  spoken  in  the 
name  of  God.  Minos,  Moses,  Zoroaster,  Confu- 
cius, Zaleucus,  Numa,  Mahomet,  profess  to  have  re- 
ceived their  doctrine  straightway  from  God.  The 
sacred  persons  of  all  nations,  from  the  Druid  to  the 
Pope,  refer  back  to  the  direct  inspiration  of  Him. 
From  this  source  the  Sibylline  oracles,  the  responses 
at  Delphi,  the  sacred  books  of  all  nations,  the  Vedas 
and  the  Bible,  alike  claim  to  proceed.  Pagans  tell 
us  no  man  was  ever  great  without  a  divine  affla- 
tus falling  upon   him.^     Much  falsity  was  mingled 

»  On  this  doctrine  see  Sonntag,  Doctrina  Inspirationis,  &c.  1803,  §  I, 
et  seq.  and  the  authors  he  cites.  De  Wette,  Dogmatik,  §  85-96,  and 
§  143-148,  gives  the  Old  Testament  doctrine  of  Inspiration.  See  also 
Hase,  Hutterus  Redivivus,  §  41,  Dogmatik,  §  8.  Rretsclineider  ubi 
sup.  Vol.  I.  §  14,  et  seq.  and  Baumgarten-Crusius,  Dogmengeschichte, 
Vol.  II.  p.  775,  et  seq.  Much  useful  matter  has  been  collected  by  these 
writers,  and  by  Manscher,  Bauer,  Von-Colln  and  Strauss,  but  a  special 
history  of  the  doctrine  is  still  a  desideratum. 

2  See  the  opinions  of  the  ancients  in  the  classic  passages,  Cicero  de 
Nat.  Deorum,  II.  6G.  Orat.  pro.  Arch.  c.  8,  Tusc.  V.  4.  Xenophon  Me- 
morab.  1. 1.  Seneca,  Ep.  XLI.  See  many  passages  collected  in  Sonntag. 
See  also  Barclay's  Apology  for  the  Quakers,  Prop.  I.-III.  XI.  Sewel's 
History  of  the  Quakers,  B.  IX.  X.  XI.  XII.  and  p.  693,  and  George 
Fox's  Journal,  passim. 


•• 


INSPIRED  MEN  NOT  GOD.  229 

with  the  true  doctrine,  for  that  was  imperfectly  un- 
derstood, and  violence,  and  folly  and  lies  were  thus 
ascribed  to  God.  Still  the  popular  belief  shows 
that  the  human  mind  turns  naturally  in  this  direc- 
tion. Each  prophet,  f^dse  or  true,  in  Palestine, 
Nubia,  India,  Greece,  spoke  in  the  name  of  God. 
In  this  name  the  apostles  of  Christ  and  of  Mahomet, 
the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant,  went  to  their 
work.^  A  good  man  feels  that  Justice,  Goodness, 
Truth,  are  immutable,  not  dependent  on  himself; 
that  certain  convictions  come  by  a  law  over  which 
he  has  no  control.  There  they  stand,  he  cannot 
alter  though  he  may  refuse  to  obey  them.  Some 
have  considered  themselves  bare  tools  in  the  hand 
of  God  ;  they  did  and  said  they  knew  not  what, 
thus  charging  their  follies  and  sins  on  God  most  high. 
Others,  going  to  a  greater  degree  of  insanity,  have 
confounded  God  with  themselves,  declaring  that 
they  were  God.  But  even  if  likeness  were  per- 
fect, it  is  not  identity.  But  a  ray  from  the  primal 
light  falls  on  man.  No  doubt  there  have  been 
men  of  an  high  degree  of  inspiration,  in  all  coun- 
tries ;  the  founders  of  the  various  religions  of  the 
world.     But  they  have  been  limited  in  their  gifts, 

'  The  history  of  the  formation  of  the  ecclesiastical  doctrine  of  inspi- 
ration, which  is  the  Supernatural  View,  is  curious.  It  did  not  assume 
its  most  exclusive  shape  in  the  early  teachers.  In  John  of  Damascus  it 
appears  in  its  vigor.  In  Abelard  and  Peter  Lombard,  it  is  more  mild 
and  liberal.  Since  the  Reformation,  it  has  been  violently  attacked. 
Luther  himself  is  fluctuating  in  his  opinions.  As  men's  eyes  opened 
they  would  separate  falsehood  from  truth.  The  writings  of  the  English 
deists  had  a  great  influence  in  this  matter.  See  Walch's  Religions- 
Streitigkeiten,  Vol.  V.  Ch.  VII.  Strauss  also,  Vol,  I.  §  14, et  seq.  gives 
a  brief  and  compendious  account  of  attacks  on  this  doctrine. 


230  INSPIRATION  UNIVERSAL. 

and  their  use  of  them.  The  doctrine  they  taught 
had  somewhat  national,  temporal,  even  personal,  in 
it,  and  so  was  not  the  Absolute  Religion.  No  man 
is  so  great  as  human  Nature,  nor  can  one  finite 
being  feed  forever  all  his  brethren.  So  their  doc- 
trines were  limited  in  extent  and  duration. 

Now  this  inspiration  is  limited  to  no  sect,  age,  or 
nation.  It  is  wade  as  the  world,  and  common  as 
God.  It  is  not  given  to  a  few  men,  in  the  infancy 
of  mankind,  to  monopolize  inspiration  and  bar  God 
out  of  the  soul.  You  and  I  are  not  born  in  the 
dotage  and  decay  of  the  world.  The  stars  are 
beautiful  as  in  their  prime ;  "  the  most  ancient 
Heavens  are  fresh  and  strong ; "  the  bird  merry  as 
ever  at  its  clear  heart.  God  is  still  everywhere  in 
nature,  at  the  line,  the  pole,  in  a  mountain  or  a 
moss.  Wherever  a  heart  beats  with  love  ;  where 
Faith  and  Reason  utter  their  oracles  there  also  is 
God,  as  formerly  in  the  heart  of  seers  and  prophets. 
Neither  Gerizim  nor  Jerusalem,  nor  the  soil  that 
Jesus  blessed,  so  holy  as  the  good  man's  heart; 
nothing  so  full  of  God.  This  inspiration  is  not 
given  to  the  learned  alone,  not  to  the  great  and 
wise,  but  to  every  faithful  child  of  God.  The 
world  is  close  to  the  body  ;  God  closer  to  the  soul, 
not  only  without  but  within,  for  the  all-pervading 
current  flows  into  each.  The  clear  sky  bends  over 
each  man,  little  or  great;  let  him  uncover  his  head, 
there  is  nothing  between  him  and  infinite  space. 
So  the  ocean  of  God  encircles  all  men ;  uncover 
the  soul  of  its  sensuality,  selfishness,  sin,  there  is 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  EXPERIENCE.         231 

nothing  between  it  and  God,  wlio  flows  into  the 
man,  as  light  into  the  air.  Certain  as  the  open  eye 
drinks  in  the  light,  do  the  pure  in  heart  see  God, 
and  he  that  lives  truly  feel  him  as  a  presence  not  to 
be  put  by.^ 

But  this  is  a  doctrine  of  experience  as  much  as 
of  abstract  reasoning.  Every  man  who  has  ever 
prayed  —  prayed  with  the  mind,  prayed  with  the 
heart  greatly  and  strong,  knows  the  truth  of  this 
doctrine,  welcomed  by  pious  souls.  There  are 
hours,  and  they  come  to  all  men,  when  the  hand  of 
destiny  seems  heavy  upon  us  ;  when  the  thought  of 
time  misspent;  the  pang  of  affection  misplaced  or 
ill-requited  ;  the  experience  of  man's  worse  nature 
and  the  sense  of  our  own  degradation,  come  over 
us.  In  the  outward  and  inward  trials,  we  know  not 
which  way  to  turn.  The  heart  faints  and  is  ready 
to  perish.  Then  in  the  deep  silence  of  the  soul^ 
when  the  man  turns  inward  to  God,  light,  comfort, 
peace  dawn  on  him.  His  troubles  —  they  are  but 
a  dew-drop  on  his  sandal.  His  enmities  or  jeal- 
ousies, hopes,  fears,  honors,  disgraces,  all  the  un- 
deserved mishaps  of  life,  are  lost  to  the  view  ; 
diminished,  and  then  hid  in  the  mists  of  the  valley 
he  has  left  behind  and  below  him.  Resolution 
comes  over  him  with  its  vigorous  wing;  Truth  is 
clear  as  noon;  the  soul  in  faith  rushes  to  its  God. 
The  mystery  is  at  an  end. 

'  Such  as  like  to  settle  questions  by  authority,  will  see  that  this  is  the 
doctrine  of  the  more  spiritual  writers  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
especially  of  John  and  Jesus. 


232  POPULAR  DOUBTS  THEREOF. 

It  is  no  vulgar  superstition  to  say  men  are  in- 
spired in  such  times.  Tliej  are  the  seed-time  of' 
life.  Then  we  live  whole  years  through  in  a  few 
moments,  and  afterwards,  as  we  journey  on  in  life, 
cold,  and  dusty,  and  travel-worn  and  faint,  we  look 
to  that  moment  as  a  point  of  light ;  the  remem- 
brance of  it  comes  over  us  like  the  music  of  our 
home  heard  in  a  distant  land.  Like  Elisha  in  the 
fable,  we  go  long  years  in  the  strength  thereof.  It 
travels  with  us,  a  great  wakening  light ;  a  pillar  of 
fire  in  the  darkness,  to  guide  us  through  the  lonely 
pilgrimage  of  life.  These  hours  of  inspiration,  like 
the  flower  of  the  aloe  tree,  may  be  rare,  but  are 
yet  the  celestial  blossoming  of  man  ;  the  result  of 
the  past,  the  prophecy  of  the  future.  They  are  not 
numerous  to  any  man.  Happy  is  he  that  has  ten 
such  in  a  year,  yes,  in  a  life-time. 

Now  to  many  men,  who  have  but  once  felt  this; 
when  heaven  lay  about  them,  in  their  infancy, 
before  the  world  was  too  much  with  them,  and  they 
laid  waste  their  powers,  getting  and  spending, 
when  they  look  back  upon  it,  across  the  dreary 
gulf,  where  Honor,  Virtue,  Religion  have  made  ship- 
wreck and  perished  with  their  youth,  it  seems  vis- 
ionary, a  shadow,  dream-like,  unreal.  They  count 
it  a  phantom  of  their  inexperience  ;  the  vision  of  a 
child's  fancy,  raw  and  unused  to  the  world.  Now 
they  are  wiser.  They  cease  to  believe  in  inspira- 
tion. They  can  only  credit  the .  saying  of  the 
priests,  that  long  ago  there  were  inspired  men ;  but 
none  now ;  that  you  and  I  must  bow  our  faces  to 


CiOD   READY   TO   AID   US.  233 

the  dust,  groping  like  the  Blind-worm  and  the 
Beetle  ;  not  turn  our  eyes  to  the  broad,  ire?,  heaven; 
that  we  cannot  walk  by  the  great  central  and  celes- 
tial light  that  God  made  to  guide  all  that  come  into 
the  world,  but  only  by  the  farthing-candle  of  tradi- 
tion, poor  and  flickering  light  which  we  get  of  the 
priest,  which  casts  strange  and  fearful  shadows 
around  us  as  we  walk,  that  "  leads  to  bewilder  and 
dazzles  to  blind."     Alas  for  us  if  this  be  all. 

But  can  it  be  so  ?  Has  Infinity  laid  aside  Its 
omnipresence,  retreating  to  some  little  corner  of 
space  ?  No.  The  grass  grows  as  green  ;  the  birds 
chirp  as  gaily ;  the  sun  shines  as  warm  ;  the  moon 
and  the  stars  walk  in  their  pure  beauty,  sublime  as 
before ;  morning  and  evening  have  lost  none  of 
their  loveliness  ;  not  a  jewel  has  fallen  from  the 
diadem  of  night.  God  is  still  there  ;  ever  present 
in  matter,  else  it  were  not ;  else  the  serpent  of  Fate 
would  coil  him  about  the  All  of  things  ;  would 
crush  it  in  his  remorseless  grasp,  and  the  hour  of 
ruin,  strike  creation's  knell. 

Can  it  be  then,  as  so  many  tell  us,  that  God,  im- 
manent in  matter,  has  forsaken  man  ;  retreated  from 
the  shekinah  in  the  holy  of  holies  to  the  court 
of  the  Gentiles;  that  now  he  will  stretch  forth  no 
aid,  but  leave  his  tottering  child  to  wander  on, 
amid  the  palpable  obscure,  eyeless  and  fatherless, 
without  a  path,  with  no  guide  but  his  feeble  broth- 
er's words  and  works ;  groping  after  God  if  haply 
he  may  find  him  ;  and  learning,  at  last,  that  he  is 
but  a  God  afar  off,  to  be  approached  only  by  medi- 

30 


234  GOD  JNOT  AFAR  OFF. 

ators  and  attorneys,  not  face  to  fare  as  before  ? 
Can  it  be  that  Thought  shall  fly  through  the  Heav- 
en, his  wing  glittering  in  the  ray  of  every  star, 
burnished  by  a  million  suns,  and  then  come  droop- 
ing back,  with  ruffled  plume  and  flagging  wing, 
and  eye  that  once  looked  undazzled  ( n  the  sun, 
now  spiritless  and  cold ;  come  back  to  tell  us  God 
is  no  Father ;  that  he  vails  his  face  and  will  not 
look  upon  his  child  ;  his  erring  child !  No  more 
can  this  be  true.  Conscience  is  still  God-with-us  ; 
a  Prayer  is  deep  as  ever  of  old  ;  Reason  as  true  ; 
Religion  as  blest.  Faith  still  remains  the  substance 
of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not 
seen.  Love  is  yet  mighty  to  cast  out  fear.  The 
soul  still  searches  the  deeps  of  God  ;  the  pure  in 
heart  see  him.  The  substance  of  the  Infinite  is 
not  yet  exhausted,  nor  the  well  of  Life  drunk  dry. 
The  Father  is  near  us  as  ever,  else  Reason  were  a 
traitor.  Morality  a  hollow  form.  Religion  a  mockery, 
and  Love  an  hideous  lie.  Now,  as  in  the  days  of 
Adam,  Moses,  Jesus,  he  that  is  faithful  to  Reason, 
Conscience,  and  Religion,  will,  through  them,  re- 
ceive inspiration  to  guide  him  through  all  his  pil- 
grimage. 


BOOK    III. 


"  Where  there  is  a  great  deal  of  smoke  and  no  clear  flame,  it  argueth 
much  moisture  in  the  matter,  and  yet  it  witnesseth  certainly  that  there  is 
fire  there;  and  therefore  dubious  questioning  is  a  much  better  evidence, 
than  that  senseless  deadness  which  most  men  take  for  believing.  Men 
that  know  nothing  in  sciences  have  no  doubts."  Leighton,  cited  by 
Coleridge,  Aids  to  Reflection,  American  edition,  1829,  p.  64. 

"  He  who  begins  by  loving  Christianity  better  than  Truth  will  proceed 
by  loving  his  own  Sect  or  Church,  better  than  Christianity,  and  end  in 
loving  himself  better  than  all."     Coleridge,  uhi  sup.  p.  G4-G5. 

"  While  every  body  wishes  to  believe  rather  than  examine  and  decide, 
a  just  judgment,  is  never  passed  upon  a  matter  of  the  greatest  import- 
ance ;  our  opinion  thereof  is  taken  on  trust.  The  error  of  our  fathers 
which  has  fallen  into  our  hands  whirls  us  round  and  drives  us  headlong. 
We  are  ruined  by  the  example  of  others.  We  shall  be  healed  if  we 
separate  from  the  rabble.  Now  the  people,  in  hostility  with  Reason, 
stand  up  as  the  defence  of  what  is  their  own  mischief."  Seneca,  De 
Vita  bcata,  Ch.  I.,  a  free  translation. 


BOOK  III. 

THE  RELATION  OF  THE  RELIGIOUS  SENTIMENT  TO  JESUS  OF 
NAZARETH,  OR  A  DISCOURSE  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


CHAPTER    I. 

STATEMENT    OF  THE  QUESTION   AND    THE    METHOD  OF    INQUIRY. 

It  was  said  before,  that  Religion,  like  Love,  is 
always  the  same  thing  in  kind,  though  both  are 
necessarily  modified  by  other  emotions  combining 
therewith  and  by  the  conception  of  the  object  to 
which  the  emotion  is  directed.  Thus  Love  is  modi- 
fied as  it  chances  to  coexist  with  weakness  or 
strength,  folly  or  wisdom,  selfishness  or  morality,  — 
qualities  in  the  subject  who  loves.  By  these  qualities 
the  degree  of  Love  is  determined.  It  is  modified 
also  by  the  qualities  of  the  object ;  as  love  is  directed 
towards  a  child,  a  wife  or  a  friend.  Hence  come 
the  different  modifications  of  Religion  as  it  coexists 
with  faith  or  fear,  wisdom  or  ignorance,  love  or 
hate  in  the  worshiping  subject,  and  again  as  the 
object  of  worship,  is  conceived  to  be  one  being,  or 
many  beings,  or  all  being ;  as  he  is  conceived  of  as 


238  RELATION  OF  THE   RELIGTOUS 

the  absolutely  Perfect  :  or  represented  as  finite, 
cruel,  capricious  and  unlovely.  The  only  perfect 
form  of  Religion  is  produced  by  all  the  principles 
of  man's  nature,  acting  harmoniously  together.  All 
manifestations  of  Religion  proceed  from  the  religious 
sentiment  in  man,  and  are,  more  or  less,  imperfect 
representations  of  that  sentiment,  as  its  action  is 
more  or  less  impeded  or  promoted  by  various  causes. 
If  this  be  so,  it  follows  that  the  religious  Senti- 
ment or  principle  in  man  bears  the  same  relation  to 
each  and  all  particular  forms  and  teachers  of  Reli- 
gion, that  Reason  bears  to  each  and  all  particular 
systems  or  teachers  of  Philosophy.  That  is,  as  no 
one  teacher  or  system  of  Philosophy,  nor  all  teach- 
ers and  systems  taken  together  have  exhausted  Rea- 
son, which  is  the  groundwork  and  standard-measure 
of  them  all,  and  is  represented  more  or  less  partially 
in  each  of  them,  and  therefore  as  new  teachers  and 
new  systems  of  Philosophy  are  always  possible  and 
necessary  until  a  system  is  discovered  which  em- 
braces all  the  facts  of  Science,  sets  forth  and  legiti- 
mates all  the  laws  of  Nature,  and  thus  represents 
the  Absolute  Science,  which  is  implied  in  the  Facts 
of  nature,  or  the  Ideas  of  God  ;  so  no  one  teacher 
or  form  of  Religion,  nor  all  teachers  and  forms  put 
together,  have  exhausted  the  religious  Sentiment, 
which  is  the  groundwork  and  standard-measure  of 
them  all,  and  is  represented  more  or  less  partially  in 
each,  and  so  new  teachers  and  new  forms  of  Reli- 
gion are  always  possible  and  necessary,  until  a  form 
is  discovered,  which  embraces  all  the  facts  of  man's 


SENTIMENT  TO  A   FORM  OF   RELICUON.  239 

moral  and  religious  nature,  sets  forth  and  legitimates 
all  ilie  laws  thereof,  and  thus  represents  the  Absolute 
Religion,  as  it  is  implied  in  the  Facts  of  man's  na- 
ture, or  the  Ideas  of  God.  As  no  system  or  teacher 
of  Philosophy  is  greater  than  Reason,  and  compe- 
tent to  give  laws  to  nature,  but  at  the  utmost  is 
only  coordinate  w^ith  Reason,  and  competent  to  dis- 
cover and  announce  the  laws  of  nature  previously 
existing  ;  so  no  form  or  teacher  of  Religion  can  be 
greater  than  the  religious  Sentiment,  and  competent 
to  give  laws  to  man,  but  at  the  utmost  is  only  coor- 
dinate with  the  religious  Sentiment,  and  competent 
to  discover  and  announce  the  laws  of  man  previously 
existing.  In  one  word,  Absolute  Science  answers 
exactly  to  Reason,  and  is  what  Reason  demands  ; 
Absolute  Religion  answers  exactly  to  the  religious 
Sentiment,  and  is  what  the  religious  Sentiment  de- 
mands. Therefore  until  Philosophy  and  Religion 
attain  the  Absolute,  each  form  or  teacher  of  either  is 
subject  to  be  modified  or  supplanted  by  any  man  who 
has  a  truth  not  embraced  by  the  Philosophy  or  Reli- 
gion at  that  time  extant.  However,  there  are  certain 
primary  truths  of  Science  and  Religion,  which  alone 
render  the  two  possible,  and  which  are  possessed 
with  more  or  less  of  a  distinct  understanding  by  all 
teachers  of  the  two,  and  attain  greater  prominence 
with  some.  Though  the  system  may  have  many 
faults  accidentally  connected  with  it ;  though  others 
may  point  out  the  faults  and  develop  the  system 
still  farther,  yet  the  first  principles  remain.  Thus 
in  Science,  the  maxims  of  Geometry,  in  Morals  the 
first  truths  thereof,  must  reappear  in  all  the  systems. 


240  CHRISTIANITY  AJND  THE   ABSOLUTE. 

Now  to  make  a  special  application  of  these  gen- 
eral remarks  ;  Christianity  can  be  no  greater  than 
the  religious  sentiment,  though  it  may  be  less,  as 
the  water  can  of  itself  rise  no  higher  in  the  pipe 
than  in  the  fountain,  though  if  the  pipe  be  defec- 
tive it  may  fail  of  its  former  height.  Religion  is 
the  universal  term,  and  absolute  Religion  and  Mo- 
rality its  highest  expression  ;  Christianity  is  a  par- 
ticular form  under  this  universal  term  ;  one  form  of 
religion  among  many  others.  It  is  either  absolute 
Religion  and  Morality,  or  it  is  less  ;  greater  it  can- 
not be,  as  there  iS  no  greater.  Christianity  then  is 
a  form  of  Religion.  As  it  is  actual,  it  must  have 
been  revealed  ;  if  it  is  true,  it  must  be  natural.  It 
is  therefore  to  be  examined  and  judged  of  as  other 
forms  of  Religion,  by  Reason  and  the  religious 
Sentiment.    It  is  true  or  false  ;  perfect  or  imperfect. 

The  question  then  reduces  itself  to  this.  Is 
Christianity  the  Absolute  Religion  ?  To  answer 
the  question  we  must  know,  first,  what  Christian- 
ity is  ;  secondly,  what  absolute  Religion  is :  If 
Christianity  is  not  the  Absolute,  we  must  of  course 
look  for  a  more  perfect  revelation  of  Religion,  just 
as  we  look  for  improvements  in  Science  till  Philoso- 
phy becomes  absolute.  But  if  Christianity  be  this, 
or  involve  it,  and  nothing  contradicts  or  impedes 
this,  then  we  can  expect  nothing  higher  in  Religion, 
for  there  is  no  higher  ;  but  have  only  to  understand 
this,  and  develop  its  principles  ;  applying  it  to  life, 
in  order  to  attain  perfect  religious  welfare. 

To  ascertain   what  is    absolute  Religion  is   no 


METHOD  OF  INQUIRY.  241 

difficult  matter ;  Tor  Religion  is  not  an  external 
thing,  like  Astronomy,  to  be  learned  by  long  obser- 
vation, and  the  perfection  of  scientific  instruments 
and  algebraic  processes  ;  but  something  above  all, 
inward  and  natural  to  man.  As  it  was  said  before, 
absolute  Religion  is  perfect  obedience  to  the  Law 
of  God ;  perfect  Love  towards  God  and  man,  ex- 
hibited in  a  life  allowing  and  demanding  a  harmo- 
nious action  of  all  man's  faculties,  so  far  as  they 
act  at  all.  But  to  answer  the  historical  question  ; 
Did  Jesus  of  Nazareth  teach  absolute  Religion  ?  is 
a  matter  vastly  more  difficult,  which  it  requires 
learning,  critical  skill,  and  no  little  pains-taking  to 
make  out.  To  answer  the  first  question.  What  is 
Christianity  P  is  a  very  difficult  thing.  No  two 
men  seem  agreed  about  it ;  the  wickedest  of  wars 
have  been  fought  to  settle  it.  To  answer  the  query, 
are  we  to  take  what  is  popularly  called  Christian- 
ity ?  No  Protestant  thinks  the  Christianity  of  the 
Catholic  Church  is  absolute  Religion  ;  nor  will  the 
Catholic  think  better  of  the  Protestant  faith.  A 
pious  man,  free  from  bigotry,  and  capable  of  judg- 
ing, would  surely  make  very  short  work  of  the 
question,  and  decide  that  Christianity,  as  popularly 
taught  by  both  these  churches,  taken  together,  is 
not  absolute  Religion. 

But  we  must  look  deeper  than  Catholicism  and 
Popery.  We  must  distinguish  Christianity  from 
the  popular  Conceptions  of  Christianity,  from  its 
Proof  and  its  Form.  To  do  this,  we  must  go  back 
to  the  fountain-head,  the  words  of  Jesus.     We  must 

31 


242  RELIGIOUS  TRUTH  ETERNAL. 

then  take  these  words  in  the  abstract,  separate 
from  any  church  ;  apart  from  all  authority,  real  or 
pretended ;  without  respect  of  any  application 
thereof  to  life,  that  was  made  by  its  founder  or 
others.  If  all  churches  have  believed  it,  if  miracles 
have  been  wrought  in  its  favor,  if  its  application 
have  been  good  in  this  or  that  case,  it  does  not  fol- 
low that  Christianity  is  absolute  and  final.  The 
Church  has  been  notoriously  mistaken  on  many 
points.  Miracles  are  claimed  for  Judaism,  Mahom- 
etanism,  and  Idolatry,  each  heresy  is  thought  by  its 
followers  to  work  well.  We  must  look  away  from 
all  these  considerations.  If  Jesus  of  Nazareth  lived 
out  his  idea,  and  was  the  greatest  of  saints,  it  does 
not  follow  his  idea  was  absolute,  and  therefore 
final.  If  he  did  not  perfectly  live  it  out,  the  reverse 
does  not  follow.  The  good  life  of  a  teacher  proves 
nothing  of  any  speculative  doctrine  he  entertains, 
either  in  morals  or  mathematics.  A  man  would 
be  thought  insane  who  should  say  Euclid's  demon- 
stration of  the  forty-seventh  problem  was  true,  be- 
cause Euclid  lived  a  good  life,  and  raised  men  from 
the  dead  ;  or  that  it  was  false,  because  he  lived  a 
bad  life,  and  murdered  his  mother.  If  Christianity 
be  the  Absolute,  it  is  independent  of  all  circum- 
stances ;  eternally  true,  as  much  before  its  revelation 
as  after  it  is  brought  to  light  and  applied  to  life.^ 
Before  its  revelation  it  was  active,  but  unknown ; 


'  See  this  point  touched  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  The  Previous  Ques- 
tion between  Mr.  Andrews  Norton  and  his  Alumni,  moved  and  handled, 
by  Levi  Blodgett."     Boston,  1840. 


RELIGIOUS  TRUTH  ETERNAL.  243 

afterwards  known  to  be  active.     To  illustrate  this 
point ;  the  three  angles  of  a  triangle  are  equal  to 
two  right  angles.     This  is  eternally  true  ;  and  ap- 
plies to  all  triangles  that  were,  are,  or  are  to  be  con- 
ceived of.     It  was  just  as  true  before  any  one  dis- 
covered and   declared  it,  as  afterwards.     Its  truth 
depends  not  on  the  fact  that  Thales  or  Stilpo  de- 
monstrates the  theorem,  nor  on  the  authority  of  him 
who  asserts  it.    Its  truth  exists  in  the  very  nature  of 
things,  or,  to  use  other  words,  in  the  ideas  of  God. 
It  was  just  the  same  before  creation  as  afterwards. 
Other  things  remaining  the  same,  even  Omnipo- 
tence cannot  make  these  three  angles  to  be  more  or 
less  than  three  right  angles,   for  Infinite   power  of 
course  excludes  contradictions. 

Now  there  are  two  things ;  first.  Religion  as  it 
exists  in  the  facts  of  man's  soul,  and  secondly,  Re- 
ligion as  taught  by  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  The  first 
must  be  eternally  true.  But  it  follows  from  no 
premise  that  the  second  is  eternally  true.  He  may 
have  taught  absolute  Religion,  or  an  imperfect  form  ; 
he  may  have  omitted  what  was  essential,  or  have 
added  what  was  national,  temporal,  personal.  In 
either  case  Christianity  is  not  the  Absolute  Religion. 
But  if  it  have  none  of  these  faults,  and  really  con- 
forms with  this  ideal  standard,  or  involves  this,  and 
if  nothing  therein  contradicts  it,  then  Christianity  is 
the  Absolute  Religion,  eternally  true  ;  before  reve- 
lation, after  revelation,  —  the  Law  God  made  for 
man,  and  wrote  in  his  nature. 

Then  again  if  the  character  of  Jesus  was  not  a 


244  TRUTH  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

perfect  manifestation  of  this  perfect  Religion  which 
he  taught  or  implied ;  if  his  application  of  it  to 
life,  was  limited  by  his  position,  his  youth,  his  in- 
discretion, fanaticism,  prejudice,  ignorance,  selfish- 
ness, as  some  have  contended,  it  does  not  make  the 
Religion  he  taught  any  the  less  perfect  in  itself;  if 
true  at  all  it  is  eternally  true.  If  Christianity  be 
true  at  all,  it  would  be  just  as  true  if  Herod  or  Cat- 
iline had  taught  it.  Therefore  if  the  intellectual 
character  of  Jesus  had  never  so  many  defects,  if  he 
entertained  false  notions  about  himself,  his  office, 
ministry,  destination ;  respecting  ancient  history 
and  Jewish  literature  ;  the  existence  and  agency  of 
devils,  and  in  general,  respecting  things  past,  pre- 
sent, and  to  come  ;  if  he  entertained  the  absurdest 
notions  ajL  the  same  time,  with  his  pure  doctrine  ; 
nay,  if  he  had  never  so  many  moral  deficiencies,  if  he 
denounced  his  enemies,  and  was  frighted  at  danger, 
and  fled  away  from  death,  or  had  even  recanted  his 
most  vigorous  statements,  still  his  religious  doctrine 
remains  unaffected  by  all  of  these  circumstances. 
To  make  this  point  clear  by  recurring  to  a  former 
illustration,  a  philosopher  may  show  that  the  three 
angles  of  a  triangle  are  equal  to  two  right  angles, 
yet  lead  an  immoral  life,  believe  in  witches,  devils, 
the  philosopher's  stone,  and  imputed  righteousness. 
His  absurd  belief  and  wicked  life,  do  not  affect 
the  truth  of  his  theorem. 

Now  then  to  determine  what  Christianity  is,  we 
must  remove  all  those  extraneous  matters  relating 
to  the  person,  character,  and  authority  of  him  who 


DEPENDS    NOT  OS    JESUS.  245 

first  tauglit  it ;  we  must  separate  it  from  all  appli- 
cations thereof  which  have  been  made  to  life ;  must 
view  it  by  itself,  as  doctrine,  as  life,  and  measure  it 
by  this  ideal  standard  of  absolute  Religion.  After 
we  have  determined  this  question,  we  may  then 
judge  of  the  applications  of  Christianity  to  life,  of 
the  character  of  its  revealer,  and  try  both  by  the 
standard  he  offers. 


CHAPTER   II. 

REMOVAL  OF  SOME    DIFFICULTIES.       CHARACTER   OF  THE  CHRIS- 
TIAN   RECORDS, 

The  method  of  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  abso- 
lute Religion  is  plain  and  easy,  but  to  get  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  doctrine  taught  by  any  teacher  of  ancient 
times  is  more  difficult.  This,  however,  may  be  said 
in  general,  that  there  are  three  sources  of  knowledge 
accessible  to  men,  two  of  these  are  direct,  and  one 
indirect.  First,  Perception  through  the  senses  ;  by 
this  we  only  get  an  acquaintance  with  material 
things  and  their  properties.  Second,  Intuition 
through  Reason,  Conscience,  the  Religious  Senti- 
ment, by  which  we  get  an  acquaintance  with  spi- 
ritual things,  which  are  not  objects  of  sense.  Third, 
Reflection,  a  mental  process,  by  which  we  unfold 
what  is  contained  or  implied  or  suggested  in  per- 
ceptions or  intuitions.  Then  as  a  secondary,  but 
not  ultimate  source,  there  is  Testimony,  by  which 
we  learn  what  others  have  found  out,  through  per- 
ception, intuition,  or  reflection.  Now  thoughts  or 
objects  of  thought  may  be  classified  in  reference  to 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  TESTIMONY.  247 

their  sources.  The  truths  of  absolute  Religion  are 
not  matters  of  sense,  it  is  plain.  If  objects  of  re- 
flection or  intuition,  they  must  be  obvious  to  all  who 
have  the  intuitive  or  reflective  faculty,  and  will  use 
it.  They  therefore  are  matters  of  direct  personal 
experience  ;  not  so  a  knowledge  of  any  given  his- 
torical form  of  Religion.  As  it  has  been  before 
said,  the  great  truths  of  Religion  are  matters  of  in- 
tuition, God  helping  the  faithful,  who  use  their 
faculties  justly.  Therefore,  theoretically,  each  may 
depend  on  his  own  intuitions,  as  each  thinker  on  his 
own  reflections.  If  not  faithful,  the  aid,  the  coun- 
sel, the  example  of  the  good  man  help  us  to  the 
truth.  The  wise  and  the  pious  are  the  educators 
whom  God  appoints  for  the  race.  By  their  supe- 
rior gift,  they  help  feebler  men  to  understand,  what 
else  the  latter  might  never  have  reached.  The 
same  rule  holds  good  in  both  Philosophy  and  Reli- 
gion ;  the  weak  need  the  help  of  the  strong  ;  youth 
of  experience  ;  the  faithless  of  the  faithful.  The 
works  and  words  of  the  saint  help  the  sinner  to  the 
source  of  truth.  This  is  the  office  of  prophets  and 
apostles. 

In  historical  questions,  respecting  events  that 
took  place  out  of  the  sphere  of  our  observation,  we 
must  depend  on  the  testimony  of  others  who  report 
what  they  have  seen  and  heard,  felt  or  thought.  To 
determine  what  Christianity  is,  we  must  depend  on 
the  testimony  of  the  Evangelists,  who  profess  to 
relate  the  works  and  words  of  Jesus,  and  the  Apos- 
tles, who  reduced  his  thought  to  organization  and 


248  DEFECTS  OF  THE  EVIDENCE. 

applied  it  to  life.  To  speak  of  the  four  Evangel- 
ists, admitting,  for  the  sake  of  the  argument,  we 
have  their  evidence,  and  the  books  in  our  hands 
come  really  from  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John, 
and  that  they  bore  the  relation  to  Jesus  which  they 
claim  ;  the  question  comes,  Are  they  competent  to 
testify  in  the  case  ?  Can  we  trust  them  to  give  us 
the  whole  truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth  ?  Ad- 
mitting they  were  honest,  yet  if  they  were  but 
men,  there  must  be  limitations  to  the  accuracy  of 
their  testimony.  They  must  omit  many  things  that 
Jesus  said  and  did,  perhaps  both  actions  and  words 
important  in  estimating  his  doctrines.  They  can 
express  only  so  much  of  their  teacher's  opinions  as 
they  know  ;  to  do  this  they  might  perhaps  modify, 
at  least  color,  the  doctrine  in  their  own  mind. 
They  might  not  always  understand  what  they 
heard ;  mistake  a  general  for  a  particular  state- 
ment, and  the  reverse ;  a  new  doctrine  of  the 
teacher  might  accidentally  coincide  in  part  with  an 
old  doctrine,  and  he  be  supposed  to  teach  what  he 
did  not  teach ;  a  parable  or  an  action  might  be  mis- 
understood; a  quotation  misapplied  or  forgotten, 
and  another  put  in  its  place  ;  a  general  prediction, 
wish,  or  hope  referred  to  a  specific  time,  or  event, 
when  it  had  no  such  reference.  He  may  have 
merely  allowed  things  which  he  was  afterwards 
supposed  to  have  commanded.  The  writers  might 
unconsciously  exaggerate  or  diminish  the  fact ;  they 
might  get  intelligence  at  second  hand,  from  hear- 
say, and  popular  rumor.     Their  national,  sectarian, 


DEFECTS  OF  HISTORICAL  TESTIMONY.  249 

personal  prejudices  miist  color  their  narrative. 
They  might  confound  their  own  notions  with  his, 
and  represent  him  as  teaching  what  he  did  not 
teach.  Tliey  miglit  not  separate  fact  from  fancy. 
Their  love  of  the  marvellous  might  lead  them 
astray.  If  they  believed  in  miracles  they  would 
ascribe  prodigious  things  to  their  teacher.  Had 
they  a  faith  in  ghosts  and  devils  they  would  natu- 
rally interpret  his  words  in  favor  of  their  own  no- 
tions, rather  than  in  opposition  thereto.  If  the 
writers  were  ignorant  men ;  if  they  wrote  in  one 
language  and  he  spoke  in  another ;  still  more,  if 
they  wrote  at  some  distance  of  time  from  the 
events,  and  were  not  skilled  in  sifting  rumors  and 
separating  fact  from  fiction,  the  difficulty  becomes 
still  greater.  These  defects  are  common,  more  or 
less,  to  all  historical  testimony.  In  the  case  of  the 
Evangelists,  they  constitute  a  very  serious  difficulty. 
We  know  the  character  of  the  writers  only  from 
themselves ;  they  relate  much  from  hearsay  ;  they 
mingle  their  own  personal  prejudices  in  their  work; 
their  testimony  was  not  reduced  to  writing,  so  far 
as  we  know,  till  long  after  the  event ;  we  see  they 
were  often  mistaken,  and  did  not  always  under- 
stand the  words  or  actions  of  their  teacher  ;  that 
they  contradict  one  another,  and  even  themselves ; 
that  they  mingle  with  their  story  puerile  notions 
and  tales  which  it  is  charitable  to  call  absurd. 
Such  testimony  could  not  be  received  if  found  in 
Valerius,  Maximus,  and  Livy,  or  offered  in  a  court 

32 


250  INCONSISTENCIES  IN  THE  RECORDS. 

of  justice,  when  only  a  few  dollars  were  at  stake, 
without  great  caution. 

Now  the  difficulty  in  this  case  is  enormous.  It 
has  been  felt  from  an  early  age.  To  get  rid  of  the 
evil,  it  has  been  taught  and  even  believed,  that  the 
Evangelists  and  Apostles  were  miraculously  inspir- 
ed to  such  a  degree  that  they  could  commit  no  mis- 
take of  any  kind  in  this  matter,  and  had  none  of  the 
defects  above  hinted  at.  The  assumption  is  purely 
gratuitous.  There  is  not  a  fact  on  which  to  base 
it.  From  the  doctrine  of  inspiration  as  before  laid 
down,  it  appears  such  infallibility  is  not  possible, 
and  from  an  examination  of  the  facts  of  the  case, 
it  appears  it  was  not  actual ;  the  Evangelists  differ 
widely  from  the  Apostles ;  the  Synoptics^  give  us 
in  Jesus  a  very  different  being  from  the  Christ 
whom  John  describes,  and  all  four  make  such  con- 
tradictory statements  on  some  points,  as  to  show 
they  were  by  no  means  infallibly  inspired ;  for  in 
that  case,  not  only  the  smallest  contradiction  would 
have  been  impossible,  but,  without  concert,  they 
must  all  have  written  exactly  the  same  thing,  yet 
John  omits  the  most  surprising  facts,  the  Synoptics 
the  most  surprising  doctrines. 

What  has  been  said  is  sufficient  to  show  that  we 
must  proceed  with  great  caution  in  accepting  the 
statements  of  the  gospels.  The  most  careless  ob- 
server sees  inconsistencies,  absurd  narrations  ;  finds 
actions  attributed  to  Jesus,  and  words  put  in  his 

■  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke. 


RESULT  OF  THE  EVIDENCE.  251 

mouth,  which  arc  directly  at  variance  with  his  great 
principles,  and  the  general  tone  of  his  character. 
Still  there  must  have  been  a  foundation  of  fact  for 
such  a  superstructure  ;  a  great  spirit  to  have  com- 
menced such  a  movement  as  the  Christian  ;  a  great 
doctrine  to  have  accomplished  this,  the  most  pro- 
found and  wondrous  revolution  in  iiuman  affairs. 
We  must  conclude  that  these  writers  would  de- 
scribe the  main  features  of  his  life,  and  set  down 
the  great  principles  of  his  doctrine,  its  most  salient 
points  and  his  most  memorable  sayings,  such  as 
were  poured  out  in  the  highest  moments  of  inspi- 
ration. If  the  teacher  were  true,  these  sayings 
would  involve  all  the  rest  of  his  doctrine,  which 
any  man  of  simple  character,  religious  heart,  and 
mind  free  from  prejudice,  could  unfold  and  develop 
still  farther.  The  condition  and  nature  of  the 
Christian  records  will  not  allow  us  to  go  farther 
than  this,  and  be  curious  in  particulars.  Their  le- 
gendary and  mythical  character  does  not  warrant  full 
confidence  in  their  narrative.  There  are  certain 
main  features  of  doctrine  in  which  the  Evangelists 
and  the  Apostles  all  agree,  though  they  differ  in 
most  other  points.^ 

'  The  character  of  the  record  is  such  that  I  see  not  how  any  stress 
can  be  laid  on  particular  actions  attributed  to  Jesus.  That  he  lived  a 
divine  life,  suffered  a  violent  death,  taught  and  lived  a  most  beautiful 
religion,  this  seems  the  great  fact  about  which  a  mass  of  truth  and  error 
has  been  collected.  That  he  should  gather  disciples,  be  opposed  by  the 
Priests  and  Pharisees,  have  controversies  with  them  —  this  lay  in  the 
nature  of  things.  His  loftiest  sayings  seem  to  me  the  most  likely  to  be 
genuine.  The  great  stress  laid  on  the  person  of  Jesus  by  his  followers, 
shows  what  the  person  must  have  been.     They  put  the  person  before 


252  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SUBJECT. 

the  thing,  the  fact  above  the  idea.  But  it  is  not  about  vulgar  men  that 
such  mythical  stories  are  told.  See,  wlio  will,  the  recent  literature  on 
this  subject,  Strauss,  Leben  Jesu,  4th  cd.  1840.  Hase,  Leben  Jesu,  3d 
ed.  1840.  Theile,  Zur  Biographie  Jesu,  1837.  Weisse,  Evangelische 
Geschichte,  »S:c.,  1838.  Paulus,  Leben  Jesu,  1828.  Gfrorer  Urchris- 
tenthunis,  &c.,  1830.  Hennel,  Inquiry  concerning  the  origin  of  Chris- 
tianity, Lond.  1838.  Harwood,  German  Anti-supernaturalism,  Lond. 
1840. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE    MAIN    FEATURES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

Now  to  leave  out  of  mind  the  notions  about 
Christianity  which  prevail  in  this  or  that  church, 
age,  council,  or  writer ;  to  get  clear  of  the  pecu- 
liarities of  this  or  that  apostle  and  evangelist  ;  to 
make  a  separation  from  the  opinions  of  Jesus  about 
prophecy,  demonology,  and  other  matters  but  ac- 
cidentally connected  with  Religion  ;  to  take  his  own 
highest  statement,  the  thing  in  which  all  the  evan- 
gelists and  apostles  agree,  and  which  has  been  the 
heart  of  the  Christian  movement,  —  we  find  the  doc- 
trine of  Jesus  is  a  simple  thing :  Love  to  Man  — 
Love  to  God.  The  whole  of  Christianity  is  sum- 
med up  in  these  two  elements,  its  moral,  its  re- 
ligious side,  practical  and  contemplative.  All  the 
moral  and  religious  teaching  of  Jesus  ;  the  sermon 
on  the  mount  —  so  called;  the  parables  of  the 
Synoptics  ;  the  discourses  of  John,  are  but  an  am- 
plification of  these  ;  an  application  of  them  to  life  ; 
a  statement  of  the   blessedness  of  obedience,   the 


254  THE  SUM  OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

sadness  of  disobeying.  To  take  the  account  as  it 
stands.  A  man  asks  what  he  shall  do  to  fulfil  thfe 
idea  of  man,  and  have  "  eternal  life  ?"  He  bids  him 
keep  the  moral  law,  written  eternally  in  the  nature 
of  man  ;  specifies  some  of  its  plainest  prohibitions, 
and  adds,  Love  your  neighbor  as  yourself.  When 
asked  the  greatest  commandment  of  the  Law,  he 
sums  up  all  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  also  :  "  Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind.  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."^  Here  is  the 
sum  of  Christian  doctrine.  He  gives  the  highest 
aim  for  man,  Be  perfect  as  God.  He  declares  the 
blessedness,  present  and  eternal,  of  such  as  do  the 
Will  of  God ;  the  Spirit  of  God  shall  be  in  them, 
revealing  Truth  ;  the  kingdom  of  God  shall  be 
theirs.  He  gives  no  extended  form  of  his  views  in 
Theology,  Anthropology,  Politics,  or  Philosophy. 
But  the  great  truth  of  God's  goodness,  and  man's 
spiritual  nature,  are  implied  in  all  his  teachings. 
He  dwells  little  on  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul ; 
much  less  than  some  "  Heathens  "  before  him  ;  but 
it  is  everywhere  implied.  As  the  doctrine  was  fa- 
miliar, he  dwells  little  upon  it. 

In  the  course  of  his  teaching,  he  dwells  much 
upon  sin,  for  it  was  all  around  him.  Taking  the 
highest  view  of  man's  nature,  power,  and  duty,  he 
must  above  all  mourn  at  man's  lot  when  not  faith- 
ful, and  call  loudly  on  his  brothers  to  flee  from  a 
state  so  sad.     Matthew  would  make  his  first  ad- 

'  Matlli.  XXIl.  37,  39,  and  the  parallels  in  Mark  and  Luke. 


JESUS  KOT  THE  ONLY  SON  OF  GOD.  255 

dress  to  be,  Repent,  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is 
at  hand.^  He  speaks  of  the  cliangc  from  sin  to  a 
divine  life,  as  a  7ieiu  birth,  a  common  expression,  to 
denote  the  greatness  of  the  change.  He  promises 
reconciliation  with  God  on  condition  of  a  new  life. 
He  speaks  of  himself — if  we  may  trust  the 
words  of  the  record  so  minutely  —  as  the  life,  the 
light,  the  only  way  to  salvation,  that  is,  the  teacher 
who  shows  the  only  way.  He  considers  himself  as 
sent  by  God,  his  doctrine  and  works  not  his  own, 
but  the  Father's.  Yet  he  never  speaks  of  his  con- 
nection with  God  as  peculiar  ;  never  calls  himself 
the  Son  of  God  in  any  sense  wherein  all  good  men 
are  not  also  sons  of  God ;  never  speaks  of  his  doc- 
trines or  his  works,  as  peculiar  to  himself,  which 
others  could  not  do  and  teach.  He  promises  that 
his  disciples  shall  do  greater  works  than  his,  the 
Spirit  of  Truth  shall  teach  them  more  than  he  had 
done.  Since  he  never  speaks  of  his  relation  to 
God,  as  peculiar  to  himself,  but  on  the  contrary  as 
shared  by  all  ;  since  he  calls  the  peace-makers 
God's  children  ;  says  the  pure  in  heart,  and  all  who 
are  of  God,  shall  see  him ;  that  God  abides  in  the 
heart  of  all  who  love  him.     And,  since  he  defends 


'  This  phrase,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  is  one  of  no  little  ambiguity, 
and  it  is  certainly  possible  that,  like  the  Psalms  of  David,  it  meant  one 
thing  to  the  writer  and  another  to  us.  In  some  places  it  certainly  cannot 
mean  a  state  of  rewards  and  punishments  in  another  life,  even  if  it  ever 
have  this  meaning.  Can  it  be,  that  Jesus  expected  a  visible  kingdom  on 
the  earth  ;  or  were  his  followers  perpetually  mistaking  his  meaning .' 
There  can  be  no  doubt  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  sometimes  un- 
derstood, by  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  a  local  kingdom  on  the  earth. 


256  JESUS,  HIS  NATION  AND  TIMES. 

his  divine  Son-ship  on  the  ground  that  the  Jewish 
Scripture  calls  men  sons  of  God,  to  whom  the 
Word  of  God  came,  it  is  plain  that  he  represents 
himself  as  but  the  type  of  that  relation  which  all 
good  men  sustain  to  God  ;  that  his  strength,  inspi- 
ration, exceeding  tranquillity,  his  rest  of  soul,  and 
union  with  God,  are  what  all  men  may  share. 

To  sum  up  the  main  points  of  the  matter  more 
briefly  ;  in  an  age  of  gross  wickedness,  among  a 
people  arrogant,  and  proud  of  their  descent  from 
Abraham  —  a  mythological  character  of  some  ex- 
cellence ;  wedded  to  the  ritual  Law,  which  they 
professed  to  have  received,  by  miracle  from  God, 
through  Moses  —  another  and  greater  mythological 
hero  —  in  a  nation  of  Monotheists,  haughty  yet 
cunning,  morose,  jealous,  vindictive,  loving  the  little 
corner  of  space,  called  Judea,  above  all  the  rest  of 
the  world  ;  fancying  themselves  the  "  chosen  peo- 
ple "  and  special  favorites  of  God ;  in  the  midst  of 
a  nation  wedded  to  their  forms,  sunk  in  ignorance, 
precipitated  into  sin,  and,  still  more,  expecting  a 
Deliverer,  who  would  repel  their  political  foes,  re- 
unite the  scattered  children  of  Jacob,  and  restore 
them  to  power  ;  conquer  all  nations  ;  reestablish 
the  formal  service  of  the  Temple  in  all  its  magnifi- 
cent pomp,  and  exalt  Jerusalem  above  all  the  cities 
of  the  earth  forever,  —  amid  all  this,  and  the  oppo- 
sition it  raised  to  a  spiritual  man,  Jesus  fell  back 
on  the  moral  and  religious  sentiment  in  man  ;  ut- 
tered their  oracles  as  the  Infinite  spoke  through 
them  ;  taught  absolute  Religion,  absolute  Morality, 


PRACTICAL  LOVE  OF  GOD. 


257 


nothing  less,  nothing  more  ;  laid  down  j)rinciples 
wide  as  the  Soul,  true  and  eternal  as  God.' 

Such  then  is  the  religious  doctrine  of  Jesus.  It 
was  always  taught  with  direct  application  to  life  ; 
not  as  Science,  but  as  daily  Duty.  Love  of  God 
was  no  abstraction.  It  implied  love  of  Wisdom, 
Justice,  Purity,  Goodness,  Holiness,  Charity.  To 
love  these  is  to  love  God  ;  to  love  them  is  to  live 
them.  It  implies  abhorrence  of  evil  for  its  own 
sake  ;  a  desire  and  effort  to  be  perfect  as  God,  to 
have  no  wrong  action,  wrong  thought,  or  wrong  feel- 
ing ;  to  make  the  heart  right,  the  head  right,  the 
hand  right ;  to  serve  God,  not  with  the  lips  alone, 
but  the  life,  not  only  in  Jerusalem  and  Gerizim,  but 
everywhere  ;  not  by  tithing  mint,  anise  and  cummin, 
but  by  judgment,  mercy  and  faith ;  not  by  saying 
"  Lord,  Lord,"  "  Save  us,  good  Lord,"  but  by  do- 
ing the  Father's  will.  It  implies  a  Faith  that  is 
stronger  than  Fear,  prevails  over  every  sorrow,  grief, 
disappointment,  and  asks  only  this  ;  Thy  will  be 
done  ;  a  love  which  is  strongest  in  times  of  trouble, 
which  never  fails  when  human  affection  goes  stoop- 
ing and  feeble,  weeping  its  tears  of  blood  ;  a  love 


'  In  estimating  the  religious  doctrine  of  Jesus,  it  should  be  remember- 
ed, that  the  Synoptics  had  all  strong  Jewish  prejudices,  and  therefore 
give  a  Jeioish  coloring  to  the  doctrine  of  Jesiis,  which  does  not  appear  so 
strongly  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  or  the  writings  of  Paul.  The  careful  in- 
terpreter will  make  allowance  for  this.  But,  after  all,  the  question, 
Whether  this  or  that  historical  person  taught  Absolute  Religion,  is  of 
small  consequence  to  the  race. 
33 


258  PRACTICAL  LOVE  OF   MAN. 

which  annihilates  temptation,  and  in  the  hour  of 
mortal  agony  brings  a  fair  angel  from  the  sky ;  an 
absolute  trust  in  God  ;  a  brave  unconcern  for  the 
morrow,  so  long  as  the  day's  duties  are  faithfully 
done.  It  is  a  love  of  Goodness  and  Religion  for 
their  own  sake,  not  for  the  bribe  of  Heaven,  or  the 
dread  of  Hell.  It  implies  a  reunion  of  man  and 
God,  till  we  think  God's  thought,  and  will  God's 
will,  and  so  have  God  abiding  in  us,  and  become 
one  with  Him. 

The  other  doctrine,  Love  of  man,  is  love  of  all 
as  yourself,  not  because  they  have  no  faults,  but  in 
spite  thereof.  To  feel  no  enmity  towards  enemies  ; 
to  labor  for  them  with  love  ;  pray  for  them  with 
pitying  affection,  remembering  the  less  they  de- 
serve, the  more  they  need  ;  this  was  the  doctrine  of 
love.  It  demands  that  the  rich,  the  wise,  the  saint, 
help  the  poor,  the  foolish,  the  sinful ;  that  the  strong 
bear  the  burdens  of  the  weak,  not  bind  them  anew. 
It  tells  a  man  that  his  excellence  and  ability  are  not 
for  himself  alone,  but  for  all  mankind,  cf  which  he 
is  but  one,  beginning  first  with  the  nearest  of  the 
needy.  It  makes  the  strong  the  guardians,  not  the 
tyrants  of  the  weak.  It  said.  Go  to  the  publicans 
and  sinners,  and  call  them  to  repentance ;  go  to 
men  trodden  down  by  the  hoof  of  the  oppressor, 
rebuke  him  lovingly,  but  snatch  the  spoil  from  his 
bloody  teeth ;  go  to  men  sick  with  desolation, 
covered  all  over  with  the  leprosy  of  sin,  bowed  to- 
gether and  squalid  with  their  inveterate  disease,  bid 
them  live  and  sin  no  more.     It  despairs  of  no  man  ; 


BAPTISM  AND  THE  SUPPER.  259 

sees  the  soul  of  goodness  in  things  evil  ;  knows  the 
soul  in  its  intimate  recess  never  consents  to  sin, 
nor  loves  the  Hateful.  It  would  improve  men's 
circumstances  to  mend  their  heart ;  their  heart  to 
mend  their  circumstances.  It  does  not  say  alone, 
with  piteous  whine,  God  save  the  wicked  and  the 
weak,  but  puts  its  own  shoulder  to  the  work ; 
divides  its  raiment  and  shares  its  loaf. 

To  say  all,  in  brief,  these  two  cardinal  doctrines 
demanded  a  divine  life,  where  every  action  of 
the  hand,  the  head,  the  heart,  is  in  obedience  to 
the  Law  of  the  Soul ;  in  harmony  with  the  All-per- 
fect. This  was  Christ's  notion  of  worship.  It 
asked  for  nothing  ritual,  formal  ;  laid  no  stress  on 
special  days,  forms,  rites,  creeds.  Its  rite,  its  creed, 
its  substance  and  its  form,  are  all  contained  in  that 
one  command,  love  man  as  yourself,  God  above 

ALL. 

Thus  far  the  application  was  universal  as  the 
doctrine.  But  he  taught  something  which  is  ritual. 
Baptism  and  the  Supper.  The  first  was  a  common 
rite  at  the  time,  used  even  by  the  "  heathens."  In 
a  nation  dwelling  in  a  warm  climate,  and  so  fond  of 
symbols  as  the  Jews,  it  was  a  natural  expression  of 
the  convert's  change  of  life.  Sensual  men  must 
interpret  their  Religion  to  the  senses,  as  the  Hol- 
landers have  their  Bible  in  Dutch.  It  seems  to 
have  been  an  accommodation  to  the  wants  of  the 
times,  as  he  spoke  the  popular  language.  In  the 
same   spirit  he   keeps  the  Passover,   and  bids  the 


260  BAPTISM  AND  THE   SUPPER. 

restored  leper  offer  the  customary  sacrifice.  Did  he 
lay  any  stress  on  this  watery  dispensation  ?  count 
it  valuable  of  itself?  Then  we  must  drop  a  tear 
for  the  weakness ;  for  no  outward  act  can  change 
the  heart,  and  God  is  not  to  be  mocked,  pleased  or 
served  with  a  form.  Is  there  any  reason  to  suppose 
he  ever  designed  it  to  be  permanent  ?  It  is  indeed 
said  that  he  bade  the  disciples  teach  all  nations, 
"  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of 
the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost."  ^  But  since  the 
Apostles  never  mention  the  command,  nor  the  form, 
since  it  is  opposite  to  the  general  spirit  of  his  pre- 
cepts, it  must  be  put  with  the  many  other  things 
which  are  to  be  examined  with  much  care  before 
they  are  referred  to  him.  But  if  it  came  from  him, 
we  can  only  say,  There  is  no  perfect  Guide  but 
the  Father. 

The  second  form,  —  was  it  of  more  account  than 
the  first  ?  Who  shall  tell  us  the  "  Lord's  Supper  " 
was  designed  to  be  permanent  more  than  washing 
the  feet,  which  the  Pope  likewise  imitates  ?  Did 
he  place  any  value  on  the  dispensation  of  wine  ; 
design  it  to  extend  beyond  the  company  then  pre- 
sent ?  If  we  may  trust  the  account,  he  asks  his 
friends,  at  supper,  to  remember  him,  when  they 
break  bread.  It  was  simple,  natural,  affectionate, 
beautiful.  Was  this  a  foundation  of  a  form  ;  to  last 
forever;  a  form  valuable  in  itself;  essential  to 
man's  spiritual  welfare ;    a  form  pleasing  to  Him 

'  Math.  XXVIII.  19,  and  the  parallels. 


.* 


BAPTISM  AND  THE  SUPPER.  261 

who  is  All  in  All  ?  To  say  Jesus  laid  any  stress  on 
it  as  a  valuable  and  perpetual  rite  is,  to  go  beyond 
what  is  written.  It  needs  no  reply.  The  thing 
may  be  useful,  beautiful,  comforting  to  a  million 
souls  ;  truly  it  has  been  so.  In  Christianity  there  is 
milk  for  babes  and  meat  for  m(>n,  that  the  truth  may 
be  given  as  they  can  receive  it.  Let  each  be  fed 
with  the  Father's  bounty. 

"  Behold  the  child  by  nature's  kindly  law. 
Pleased  with  a  rattle,  tickled  with  a  straw  ; 
Some  livelier  plaything  gives  his  youth  delight, 
A  little  louder,  but  as  empty  quite." 

Thus,  the  dispensations  of  water  and  of  wine 
are,  perhaps,  the  only  limitations  set  to  the  universal 
application  of  his  great  doctrines  ;  and  if  the  above 
views  are  correct,  the  limitation  does  not  come 
from  Jesus,  and  these  forms  are  no  more  essential 
or  valuable  in  themselves,  no  more  designed  to  be 
permanent  than  the  Syro-chaldaic  tongue  in  which 
he  spoke.  Christianity  having  no  forms  essential, 
can  accommodate  itself  to  all,  but  these  being  its 
only  sensuous  appendages,  no  w^onder  sensual  men 
cling  to  them  as  the  fetichist  to  his  idol,  the  poly- 
theist  to  his  sacrifice.  Render  unto  the  senses  what 
are  theirs,  and  to  the  soul  its  own. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  AUTHORITY  OF  JESUS,   ITS    REAL  AND    PRETENDED    SOURCE. 

On  what  authority  did  Jesus  teach  ?  On  that  of 
the  most  high  God,  as  he  expressly  states,  and 
often.  But  to  have  the  authority  of  God,  is  not 
that  miraculous  ?  How  can  man  have  God's  author- 
ity in  a  natural  way  ?     Let  us  look  at  the  matter. 

I.  The  only  Authority  of  Christianity  is  its  Truth. 

Truth  is  the  relation  of  things  as  they  are  ;  false- 
hood as  they  are  not.  No  doctrine  can  have  a 
higher  condemnation  than  to  be  convicted  of  false- 
hood ;  none  an  higher  authority  than  to  be  proved 
true.  God  is  the  author  of  things  as  they  are ; 
therefore  of  this  relation,  and  therefore  of  Truth. 
He  that  delivers  the  Truth  then  has  so  far  the  au- 
thority of  Truth's  God.  Then  it  will  be  asked, 
How  do  we  know  Christianity  is  true  or  ;  that  it  is 
our  duty  to  love  man  and  God  ?  Now  when  it  is 
asked.  How  I  know  that  I  exist ;  that  doubting  is 


KNOWLEDGE  OF  RELIGIOUS  DUTY.  263 

doubting  ;  that  half  is  less  than  the  whole  ;  that  it  is 
impossible  for  tiie  same  thin^i;  to  be  and  not  to  be  ? 
the  questioner  is  set  down  as  a  strange  man.  But  it 
has  some  how  come  to  pass,  that  he  is  reckoned  a 
very  acute  and  Christian  person,  who  doubts  moral 
and  religious  axioms,  and  asks.  How  do  I  know  that 
right  is  right,  and  wrong  wrong,  and  goodness 
good  ?  Alas,  there  are  men  among  the  Christians, 
who  place  virtue  and  religion  on  a  lower  ground 
than  Aristippus  and  Democritus,  men  branded  as 
Heathens  and  Atheists.  Let  us  know  what  we 
are  about. 

It  was  said  above,  there  are,  practically,  four 
sources  of  knowledge,  direct  and  indirect,  primary 
and  secondary,  namely,  perception  for  sensible 
things;  wii?«7zo7i  for  spiritual  things;  reflection  for 
logical  things ;  and  testiinony  for  historical  things. 
If  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  are  eternal  truths, 
they  are  not  sensible  things,  not  historical  things, 
and  of  course  do  not  depend  on  sensual  perception, 
nor  historical  testimony,  but  can  be  presented  directly 
to  the  consciousness  of  men  at  one  age  as  well  as 
another,  and  thus  if  they  are  matters  of  reflection, 
may  be  made  plain  to  all  who  have  the  reflective 
faculty  and  will  use  it ;  if  they  are  matters  of  intui- 
tion, to  all  \v  ho  have  the  intuitive  faculty,  and  will 
let  it  act.  Now  the  duty  we  owe  to  man,  that  of 
loving  him  as  ourselves  ;  the  duty  we  owe  to  God, 
that  of  loving  him  above  all,  is  a  matter  of  intuition  ; 
it  proceeds  from  the  very  nature  of  man  and  is 
inseparable  from    that   nature  ;    we   recognise   the 


264  TRUTH  ETERNALLY  TRUE. 

truth  of  the  precept  as  soon  as  it  is  stated,  and  see 
the  truth  of  it  soon  as  the  unprejudiced  mind  looks 
that  way.  It  is  no  less  a  matter  of  reflection  like- 
wise. He  that  reflects  on  the  Idea  of  God  as  given 
by  intuition,  on  his  own  nature  as  he  learns  it  from 
his  mental  operations,  sees  that  this  twofold  duty 
flows  logically  from  these  premises.  The  truth  of 
these  doctrines  then  may  be  known  by  both  intui- 
tion and  reflection.  He  that  teaches  a  doctrine  eter- 
nally true,  does  not  set  forth  a  private  and  peculiar 
thing  resting  on  private  authority  and  historical  evi- 
dence, but  an  everlasting  reality,  which  rests  on  the 
ground  of  all  truth,  the  public  and  eternal  authority 
of  unchanging  God.  A  false  doctrine  is  not  of 
God.  It  has  no  back  ground  of  Godhead.  It  rests 
on  the  authority  of  Simon  Peter  or  Simon  Magus ; 
of  him  that  s&ts  it  forth.  It  is  his  private,  personal 
property.  When  the  Devil  speaks  a  lie,  he  speak- 
eth  of  his  own  ;  but  when  a  Son  of  God  speaks  the 
truth,  he  speaks  not  his  own  word  but  the  Father's. 
Shall  man  endorse  God's  word  to  make  it  current  ? 
Again,  if  the  truth  of  these  doctrines  rest  on  the 
personal  authority  of  Jesus,  it  was  not  a  duty  to 
observe  them  before  he  spoke  ;  for  he,  being  the 
cause,  or  indispensable  occasion  of  the  duty,  to 
make  the  cause  precede  the  eflect  is  an  absurdity 
too  great  for  modern  divines.  Besides,  if  it  de- 
pends on  Jesus,  it  is  not  eternally  true ;  a  religious 
doctrine  that  was  not  true  and  binding  yesterday, 
may  become  a  lie  again  by  to-morrow ;  if  not  eter- 
nally true,  it  is  no  truth  at  all.     Absolute  truth  is 


TRUTH   STANDS  THOUGH  GOSPELS  FALL.  265 

the  same  always  and  everjwhere.  Personal  author- 
ity adds  nothing  to  a  mathematical  demonstration  ; 
can  it  more  to  a  moral  intuition  ?  Can  authority 
alter  the  relation  of  things  ?  A  voice  speaking  from 
Heaven,  and  working  more  wonders  than  iEsop  and 
the  saints,  or  JMoses  and  the  Sibyl  relate,  cannot 
make  it  our  duty  to  hate  God,  or  man  ;  no  such 
voice  can  add  any  new  obligation  to  the  law  God 
wrote  in  us. 

When  it  is  said  these  doctrines  of  Christianity, 
like  the  truths  of  Science,  rest  on  their  own  au- 
thority, or  that  of  unchanging  God,  they  are  then 
seen  to  stand  on  the  highest  and  safest  ground  that 
is  possible ;  the  ground  of  absolute  truth.  Then  if 
all  the  Evangelists  and  Apostles  were  liars  ;  if 
Jesus  was  mistaken  in  a  thousand  things  ;  if  he 
were  a  hypocrite  ;  yes,  if  he  never  lived,  but  the 
New  Testament  w^ere  a  sheer  forgery  from  end  to 
end,  these  doctrines  are  just  the  same,  absolute 
truth.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  these  depend  on 
the  infallible  authority  of  Jesus,  then  if  he  were 
mistaken  in  any  one  point  his  authority  is  gone  in 
all ;  if  the  Evangelists  were  mistaken  in  any  one 
point,  we  can  never  be  certain  we  have  the  words 
of  Jesus  in  a  particular  case,  and  then  where  is 
"  historical  Christianity  ?  "  Now  it  is  a  most  no- 
torious fact,  that  the  Apostles  and  Evangelists  were 
greatly  mistaken  in  some  points.  It  is  easy  to  show, 
if  we  have  the  words  of  Jesus,  that  he  was  mis- 
taken in  some  points,  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
Old  Testament,  in  the  doctrine  of  demons,  in  the 

34 


266  THE   BASIS   OF   MIRACLES. 

celebrated  prediction  of  his  second  coming  and  the 
end  of  the  world,  within  a  few  years.  If  Christi- 
anity rest  on  his  authority,  and  that  alone,  it  falls 
when  the  foundation  falls,  and  that  stands  at  the 
mercy  of  a  schoolboy.  If  he  is  not  faithful  in  the 
unrighteous  mammon,  who  shall  commit  to  him  the 
true  riches  ? 

II.  Of  the  Authority  derived  from  the  alleged  Mira- 
cles of  Jesus. 

Of  late  years  it  has  been  unpopular  with  di- 
vines to  rest  the  authority  of  Christianity  on  its 
truth,  and  not  its  truth  on  its  authority.  It  must 
be  confessed  there  is  some  inconvenience  in  the 
case,  for  if  this  method  of  trusting  Truth  alone 
and  not  Authority  be  followed,  by-and-by  some 
things  which  have  much  Authority  and  no  Truth 
to  support  them,  may  come  to  the  ground.  The 
same  thing  took  place  in  the  middle  ages,  when 
Abelard  looked  into  Theology,  and  explained  and 
defended  some  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  by 
Reason.  The  Church  said,  If  you  commend 
the  Reasonable  as  such,  you  must  condemn  the 
Not-Reasonable,  and  then  where  are  we  ?  A  sig- 
nificant question  truly.  So  the  Church  "  cried  out 
upon  him  "  as  a  heretic,  because  he  trusted  Reason 
more  than  a  bhnd  belief  in  the  traditions  of  men, 
which  the  Church  has  long  had  the  impudence  to 
call  "  Faith  in  God."  It  is  often  said,  in  our  times, 
that  Christianity  rests  on  miracles;  that  the  author- 


MIRACLES  IN  ALL  RELIGIONS.  2G7 

ity  of  the  miracle-worker  authenticates  his  doctrine  ; 
if  a  teacher  can  raise  the  dead,  he  must  have  a 
commission  from  God  to  teach  true  doctrine.  His 
word  is  the  standard  of  truth.  Here  the  fact  and 
the  value  of  miracles  are  both  assumed  outright. 
Now  if  it  could  be  shown  that  Christianity  rested 
on  IMiracles,  or  had  more  or  less  connection  with 
them,  it  yet  proves  nothing  peculiar  in  the  case,  for 
other  religions,  fetichistic,  polytheistic,  and  mono- 
theistic, appeal  to  the  same  authority.  If  a  nation 
is  rude  and  superstitious,  the  claim  to  miracles  is 
the  more  common  ;  their  authority  the  greater.^ 
To  take  the  popular  notion ;  the  Jewish  Religion 
began  in  miracles,  was  continued,  and  will  end  in 
miracles.  The  Mahometan  tells  us  the  Koran  is  a 
miracle  ;  its  author  had  miraculous  inspiration,  vis- 
ions, and  revelations.  The  writings  of  the  Greeks, 
the  Romans,  the  Scandinavians  and  the  Hindoos, 
the  Chinese  and  Persians,  are  full  of  miracles.  In 
Fetichism  all  is  miracle,  and  its  authority,  there- 
fore, the  best  in  the  world.  The  Catholic  Church 
and  the  latter-day  saints  still  claim  the  power  of 
working  them,  and,  therefore,  of  authenticating 
whatever  they  will,  if  a  miracle  have  the  alleged 


'  See  a  curious  story  respecting  an  Eastern  Calif  and  his  decision  be- 
tween the  conflicting  claims  of  the  Christians  and  Mahometans,  in  Marco 
Polo,  ed.  Marsdcn,  Book  I.  Ch.  VIII.  p.  G7-G9.  See  also  Book  II.  Ch. 
II.  p.  275,  et  seq.  Book  III.  Ch.  XX.  §  4,  p.  648,  et  seq.  See  the  nu- 
merous  miracles  collected  by  Valerius  Maximus  in  his  treatise,  De 
Prodigiis,  Opp.  ed.  Hase,  Vol.  I.  Lib.  I.  Ch.  VI. ;  De  Somniis,  Ch. 
VII.;  De  Miraculis,  Ch.  VIII.  Spencer's  discourse  concerning  Prodi- 
gies, Lond.  1CG5. 


268  PROTESTANT  AND  CATHOLIC   MIRACLES. 

virtue.  Now  in  resting  Christianity  on  this  basis 
we  must  do  one  of  two  things  :  first,  we  must  admit 
that  Christianity  rests  on  the  same  foundation  with 
the  lowest  Fetichism,  but  has  less  divine  authority 
than  the  latter,  for  if  miracles  constitute  the  au- 
thority, then  that  is  the  best  form  of  Religion  which 
counts  the  most  miracles ;  or,  secondly,  we  must 
deny  the  reality  of  all  miracles  except  the  Christian, 
in  order  to  give  exclusive  sway  to  Christianity. 
But  the  devotees  of  each  other  form  will  retort  the 
denial,  and  claim  exclusive  credence  for  their  favor- 
ite wonders.  The  serious  inquirer  will  ask,  If  such 
be  the  Evidence,  what  is  Truth,  and  how  shall  I 
get  at  it  ?  And  if  he  does  not  stop  for  a  time  in 
skepticism,  at  best  in  indifference,  why  he  is  a 
very  rare  man.  In  this  state  of  the  case  theolo- 
gians have  felt  bound,  in  logic,  either  to  prove  the 
superiority  of  Christian  miracles,  or  to  deny  all 
other  miracles.  The  first  method  is  not  possible, 
the  Hindoo  Priest  surpasses  the  Christian  in  the 
number,  and  magnitude,  and  antiquity  of  his  mira- 
cles. The  second,  therefore,  is  the  only  method 
left.  Accordingly  most  ingenious  attempts  have 
been  made  to  devise  some  test  which  will  spare  the 
Christian  and  condemn  all  other  miracles.  The 
Protestant  saves  only  those  mentioned  in  the  Bible; 
the  Catholic,  more  consistently,  thinks  the  faculty 
immanent  in  the  Church,  and  claims  miracles  down 
to  the  present  day.  But  all  these  attempts  to  es- 
tablish a  suitable  criterion  have  been  fruitless,  and 
even  worse,  exposing  more  than  the  folly  of  their 


DEFINITION    OF    A    MIUACLIi.  269 

authors.^  However,  they  who  argue  from  the  mira- 
cles alone,  assume  tuo  things  ;  first,  that  miracles 
prove  the  divinity  of  a  doctrine  ;  secondly,  that  they 
were  wrought  in  connection  with  the  Christian  doc- 
trine. If  one  ask  proof  of  these  significant  pre- 
mises, it  is  not  easy  to  come  by.  This  subject  of 
miracles  demands  a  careful  attention.  Here  are 
two  questions  to  be  asked.  First,  Are  miracles  pos- 
sible ?  Second,  Did  they  actually  occur  in  the  case 
of  Christianity  ? 

I.  Are  Miracles  Possible  ? 

The  answer  depends  on  the  definition  of  the  term. 
The  point  we  are  to  reason  from  is  the  Idea  of  God, 
who  must  be  the  cause  of  the  miracle.  Now  a 
miracle  is  one  of  three  things  : 

1.  It  is  a  transgression  of  all  Law  which  God  has 
made ;  or, 

2.  A  transgression  of  all  known  laws,  but  obe- 
dience to  a  law  ivhich  ive  may  yet  discover  ;  or, 

3.  A  transgression  of  all  law  known  or  knowable 
by  man,  but  yet  in  conformity  icith  some  laiv  out  of 
our  reach. 

1.  To  take  the  first  definition.  A  miracle  is  not 
possible,  as  it  involves  a  contradiction.  The  infinite 
God  must  have  made  the  most  perfect  laws  admis- 

'  See  Douglas's  Criterion,  or  Miracles  Examined,  I.ond.  1734,  and  Les- 
lie's Short  Method  with  the  Deists.  See  an  ingenious  illustration  of  the 
folly  of  one  of  Leslie's  canons  in  Palfrey,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  II.  p.  150,  note 

n. 


270  ,  POSSIBILITY  OF  MIRACLES. 

sible  in  the  nature  of  things  ;  it  is  absurd  and  self- 
contradictory  to  suppose  the  reverse.  But  if  his 
laws  are  perfect  and  the  nature  of  things  unchange- 
able, why  should  he  alter  these  laws  ?  The  change 
can  be  only  for  the  worse.  To  suppose  he  does 
this  is  to  accuse  God  of  caprice.  If  he  be  the  ulti- 
mate cause  of  the  phenomena  of  the  universe,  to 
suppose  in  a  given  case  he  changes  these  pheno- 
mena, is  either  to  make  God  fickle  and  therefore 
not  worthy  to  be  relied  on ;  or  else  inferior  to  na- 
ture, of  which  he  is  yet  the  cause. 

2.  To  take  the  second  definition.  It  is  no  miracle 
at  all,  but  simply  an  act,  which  at  first  we  cannot 
understand  and  refer  to  the  process  of  its  causation. 
The  most  common  events,  such  as  growth,  vitality, 
sensation,  affection,  thought,  are  miracles.  Besides, 
the  miracle  is  of  a  most  fluctuating  character.  The 
miracle-worker  of  today  is  a  matter-of-fact  juggler 
tomorrow.  The  explosion  of  gunpowder,  the  pro- 
duction of  magnified  images  of  any  object,  the  phe- 
nomena of  mineral  and  animal  magnetism,  are  mira- 
cles in  one  age,  but  common  things  in  the  next. 
Such  wonders  prove  only  the  skill  of  the  performer. 
Science  each  year  adds  new  wonders  to  our  store. 
The  master  of  a  locomotive  steam-engine  would 
have  been  thought  greater  than  Jupiter  Tonans  or 
the  Elohim  thirty  centuries  ago. 

3.  To  take  the  third  hypothesis.  There  is  no 
antecedent  objection,  nor  metaphysical  impossibility 
in  the  case.  Finite  man  not  only  does  not,  but 
cannot  understand  all  the  modes  of  God's  action  ; 


OBJECTIONS   TO  THE   MIRACLES.  271 

all  the  laws  of  His  Being.  There  may  be  higher 
beings,  to  whom  God  reveals  himself  in  modes  that 
we  can  never  know,  for  we  cannot  tell  the  secrets 
of  God,  nor  determine  (i  priori  the  modes  of  his 
manifestation.  In  this  sense  a  miracle  is  possible. 
The  world  is  a  perpetual  miracle  of  this  sort.  Na- 
ture is  the  Art  of  God  ;  can  we  understand  it  ?  Life, 
Being,  Creation,  Duration,  do  we  understand  these 
actual  things  ?  How  then  can  we  say  to  the  In- 
finite, Hitherto  shalt  thou  come,  but  no  farther ; 
there  are  no  more  ways  wherein  thy  Being  acts  ? 

II.  Did  Miracles  occur  in  the  case  of  Christianity  ? 

This  question  is  purely  historical ;  to  be  answered, 
like  all  other  historical  questions,  by  competent  testi- 
mony. Have  we  testimony  adequate  to  prove  the 
fact  ? 

Antecedent  to  all  experience  one  empirical  thing 
is  probable  as  another.  To  the  first  man,  with  no 
experience,  birth  from  one  parent  is  no  more  sur- 
prising than  birth  from  two  ;  to  feed  five  men  with 
five  ship-loads  of  corn,  or  five  thousand  with  five 
loaves  ;  the  reproduction  of  an  arm,  or  a  finger  nail ; 
the  awaking  from  a  four  days'  death,  or  a  four  hours' 
sleep  ;  to  change  water  into  wine,  or  mineral  coal 
into  burning  gas ;  the  descent  into  the  sea,  or  the 
ascent  into  the  sky ;  the  prediction  of  a  future  or 
the  memory  of  a  past  event ;  —  all  are  alike,  one  as 
credible  as  the  other.  But  to  take  our  past  expe- 
rience of  tlie  nature  of  things,  the  case  wears  a 


272  WEAKNESS  OF  THE  EVIDENCE 

different  aspect.  We  demand  more  evidence  for  a 
strange  than  a  common  thing.  From  the  very  con- 
stitution of  the  mind  a  prudent  man  supposes  that 
the  Laws  of  Nature  continue ;  that  the  same  cause 
produces  always  the  same  effects,  if  the  circum- 
stances remain  the  same.  If  it  were  related  to  us, 
by  four  strangers  who  had  crossed  the  ocean  in  the 
same  vessel,  that  a  man,  now  in  London,  cured  dis- 
eases, opened  the  blind  eyes,  restored  the  wasted 
limb,  and  raised  men  from  the  dead  by  a  mere  word  ; 
that  he  himself  was  born  miraculously,  and  attended 
by  miracles  all  his  life, — who  would  believe  the  story? 
We  should  be  justified  in  demanding  a  large  amount 
of  the  most  unimpeachable  evidence.  This  opinion 
is  confirmed  by  the  doubt  of  scientific  men  in  re- 
spect of  animal  magnetism  —  where  no  law  is  vio- 
lated but  a  faculty  hitherto  little  noticed  is  disclosed. 
Now  if  we  look  after  the  facts  of  the  case,  we  find 
the  evidence  for  the  Christian  miracles  is  very  scanty 
in  extent,  and  very  uncertain  in  character.  We 
must  depend  on  the  testimony  of  the  epistolary  and 
the  historical  books  of  the  New  Testament.  Now 
it  is  a  notorious  fact  that  the  genuine  Epistles,  the 
earliest  Christian  documents,  make  no  mention  of 
any  miracles  performed  by  Jesus ;  and  when  we 
consider  the  character  of  Paul,  his  strong  love  of 
the  marvellous,  the  manner  in  which  he  dwells  on 
the  appearance  of  Jesus  to  him  after  death,  it  seems 
surprising,  if  he  believed  the  other  miracles,  that  he 
does  not  allude  to  them.  To  examine  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Gospels.     Two  profess  to  contain  the 


FOR  THE  CHRISTIAN  MIRACLES.  273 

evidence  of  eye-vvilnesscs.  But  we  are  not  certain 
these  books  came  in  their  present  shape  from  Jolin 
and  Matthew;  it  is  certain  they  were  not  written 
till  long  after  the  events  related.  But  still  more, 
each  of  them  relates  what  tiie  writers  could  not 
have  been  witness  to ;  so  we  may  have  nothing  but 
hearsay  and  conjecture.  Besides,  these  authors 
shared  the  common  prejudice  of  their  times,  and 
disagree  one  with  the  other.  The  Gospels  of  Mark 
and  Luke  —  who  were  not  eye-witnesses  —  in  some 
points  corroborate  the  testimony  of  John  and  Mat- 
thew ;  in  others  add  nothing.  But  there  are  still 
other  accounts  —  the  Apocryphal  Gospels  —  some 
of  them  perhaps  older  than  the  Gospels  of  Matthew 
and  John,  and  these  make  the  case  worse  by  dis- 
closing the  fondness  for  miracles  that  marked  the 
Christians  of  that  early  period.  Taking  all  these 
things  into  consideration,  and  remembering  that 
the  three  first  Gospels  are  but  one  witness,  adding 
the  current  belief  of  the  times  in  favor  of  miracles, 
the  evidence  to  prove  their  historical  reality  is  almost 
nothing,  admitting  we  have  the  genuine  books  of 
the  disciples.  It  is  such  evidence  as  would  not  be 
considered  of  much  value  in  a  court  of  justice.  How- 
ever the  absence  of  testimony  does  not  prove  that 
miracles  were  not  performed,  for  a  universal  negative 
of  this  character  cannot  be  proved.^ 

If  one  were  to  look  carefully  at  the  evidence  in 

'  See  some  just  remarks  in  Hennel,  ubi  sup  Ch.  VIII. ;  Strauss  Leben 
Jesu,  §   1-15,   §  90-103,   §  132-13'.);  Glaubcnslehre,   §   17,  and  on  the 
other  hand  Neander  and  Tholuck. 
35 


274  MIRACLES  OF  ST.  BERNARD. 

favor  of  the  Christian  miracles,  and  proceed  with 
the  caution  of  a  true  inquirer,  he  must  come  to 
the  conchision,  I  think,  that  they  cannot  be  ad- 
milted  as  facts.  The  Resurrection  —  a  miracle 
alleged  to  be  wrought  upon  Jesus,  not  hy  him, — 
has  more  evidence  than  any  other,  for  it  is  attested 
by  the  Epistles,  as  well  as  the  Gospels,  and  was 
one  corner  stone  of  the  Christian  church.  But  here, 
is  the  testimony  sufficient  to  show  that  a  man 
thoroughly  dead  as  Abraham  and  Isaac  were,  came 
back  to  life  ;  passed  through  closed  doors,  and 
ascended  into  the  sky  ?  I  cannot  speak  for  others 
—  but  most  certainly  I  cannot  believe  such  facts  on 
such  evidence. 

There  is  far  more  testimony  to  prove  the  fact  of 
miracles,  witchcraft  and  diabolical  possessions  in 
times  comparatively  modern,  than  to  prove  the 
Christian  miracles.  It  is  well  known,  that  the  most 
credible  writers  among  the  early  Christians,  Irenseus, 
Origen,  Tertullian,  Cyprian,  Augustine,  Chrysos- 
tom,  Jerome,  Theodoret  and  others,  believed  that 
the  miraculous  power  continued  in  great  vigor  in 
their  time.^  But  to  come  down  still  later,  the  case 
of  St.  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  is  more  to  the  point. 
He  lived  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries.  His 
life  has  been  written  in  part  by  William,  Abbot  of 

'  On  this  subject  of  the  miraculous  power  in  the  early  church,  see  the 
celebrated  treatise  of  Middleton,  A  free  Inquiry  into  the  Miraculous 
Powers  in  the  Christian  Church,  &c  ,  Lond.  1749,  in  his  Works,  Lond. 
1752,  Vol.  I.  See  Mosheim's  Eccles.  Hist.  Pt.  I.  Ch.  I.  §  8,  and  Mur- 
dock's  note.  The  testimony  of  Chrysostoni  is  fluctuating.  See  above, 
Vol.  I.  p.  105,  et  seq. 


,♦ 


TENDENXY  TO  EXAGGERATE.  273 

St.  Thierry,  Ernald,  Abbot  of  Bonnevaux,  and 
Geoffrey,  Abbot  of  Igny,  "  all  eye-witnesses  of  the 
saint's  actions."  Another  life  was  written  by  Ala- 
nus.  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  and  still  another  by  John 
the  Hermit,  not  long  after  the  death  of  Bernard, 
both  his  contemporaries.  Besides,  there  are  three 
books  on  his  miracles,  one  by  Philip  of  Clairvaux, 
another  bv  the  monks  of  that  place,  and  a  third  by 
the  above  mentioned  Geoffrey.  He  cures  the  deaf, 
the  dumb,  the  lame,  the  blind,  men  possessed  with 
devils,  in  many  cases,  before  multitudes  of  people. 
He  wrought  thirty-six  miracles  in  a  single  day,  says 
one  of  these  historians ;  converted  men  and  women 
that  could  not  understand  the  language  he  spoke  in. 
His  wonders  are  set  down  by  the  eye-w^itnesses 
themselves,  men  known  to  us  by  the  testimony  of 
others.^  I  do  not  hesitate  in  saying  that  there  is 
far  more  evidence  to  support  the  miracles  of  St. 
Bernard  than  those  mentioned  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 

But  we  are  to  accept  such  testimony  with  great 
caution.  The  tendency  of  men  to  believe  the 
thing  happens  which  they  expect  to  happen  ;  the 
tendency  of  rumor  to  exaggerate  a  real  occurrence, 


'  See  these  books  in  Mabillon's  edition  of  Bernard,  Paris,  1721,  Vol. 
II.  p.  107I,etseq.  See  Fleury,  Histoire  Ecclesiastique,  Liv.  LXVI.  at 
seq.,  and  especially  LXIX.  Ch.  XVII.  ed.  Nismes,  1770,  Vol.  X.  p.  147, 
et  seq.,  where  is  a  summary  of  some  of  his  most  important  miracles. 
See  likewise  Les  Vies  dcs  Snints,  Paris,  1701,  Vol.  II.  p.  2rid-32() ;  But- 
ler's Lives  of  the  Saints,  Lond.  1815,  Vol.  VIII.  p.  227-274;  Milner's 
History  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  &c.  Vol.  III.  Christian  Examiner  for 
March,  ld41,  Art.  I. 


276  AS  MUCH  EVIDENCE  FOR 

into  a  surprizing  or  miraculous  affair,  is  well  known. 
A  century  and  a  half  have  not  gone  by  since  witches 
were  tried  by  a  special  court  in  Massachusetts  ; 
convicted  by  a  jury  of  twelve  good  men  and  true ; 
preached  against  by  the  clergy,  and  executed  by 
the  common  hangman.  Any  one  who  looks  care- 
fully into  the  matter  sees  more  evidence  for  the 
reality  of  those  "  wonders  of  the  invisible  world  " 
than  for  the  Christian  miracles.  Here  is  the  testi- 
mony of  scholars,  clergymen,  witnesses  examined 
under  oath,  jurymen  and  judges  ;  the  confession  of 
honest  men ;  of  persons  whose  character  is  well 
known  at  the  present  day,  to  prove  the  reality  of 
witchcraft  and  the  actual  occurrence  of  miraculous 
facts  ;  of  the  interference  of  powers  more  than  hu- 
man in  the  affairs  of  the  world. ^  The  appearance 
of  the  Devil,  as  "a  little  black  man,"  of  spectres 
and  ghosts ;  the  power  of  witches  to  ride  through 
the  air,  overturn  a  ship,  raise  storms,  and  torture 
men  at  a  distance,  is  attested  by  a  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses, perfectly  overshadowing  to  a  man  of  easy 
faith.^     In  the  celebrated  case  of  Richard  Dugdale, 

'  See,  who  will,  Cotton  Mather's  Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World. 
Boston,  1G93,  and  Increase  Mather's  Cases  of  Conscience,  &c.,  and  the 
learned  authors  in  Diabology  therein  cited.  See  also  Hale's  Modest  En- 
quiry into  the  Nature  of  Witchcraft,  &c.,  Boston,  1702.  Calef,  More 
Wonders  from  the  Invisible  World,  London,  1700.  Upham's  Lectures 
on  Witchcraft,  &c.  Chandler's  Criminal  Trials,  p.  65,  et  seq.  Bancroft, 
ubi  supra,  Ch.  XIX.  See  many  curious  particulars  in  Hutchinson's  Es- 
say concerning  Witchcraft,  &c.  sacond  edition,  London,  1720. 

*  Henry  More  has  made  a  pretty  collection  of  cases  out  of  authors 
now  forgotten,  in  Antidote  against  Aiheism,  Book  III.  Ch.  I. -XIV. 
Appendix,  Ch.  XII.  XIII;  Immortalitas  Animas,  Lib.  II.  Ch.  XV- XVII ; 
Lib.  HI.,  Ch.  IV. ;  See  his  Enchiridion  Metaphysicum,  Pars  I.  Ch. 
XXVI. 


WITCHCRAFT  AND   I'OSSESSIONS.  277 

the  "  Surey  Demoniack,"  or  "  Surey  Impostor,"^ 
—  wliicli  occurred  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth centm-y,  in  England,  and  was  a  most  noto- 
rious affair, — we  have  the  testimonv  of  nine  dis- 
senting clergymen,  to  prove  his  diaholical  miracles, 
all  of  them  familiar  with  the  "  Demoniack ;"  and 
also  the  depositions  of  many  "  credible  persons,'''' 
sworn  to  before  two  magistrates,  to  confirm  the 
wonder.  Yet  it  turned  out  at  last  that  there  was 
no  miracle  in  the  case.^  It  is  needless  to  mention 
the  "  miracles  "  wrought  at  the  tomb  of  the  Abbe 
de  Paris,  during  the  last  century,  nor  those  of  father 
Matthews  in  Ireland,  and  the  Mormonites  in  New 
England.  A  miracle  is  never  looked  for  but  it 
comes.  No  man  can  say  there  was  not  something 
at  the  bottom  of  the  Christian  "  miracles,"  and  of 
witchcrafts  and  possessions ;  perhaps  something  not 


*  "  The  Surey  Demoniack,  or  an  Account  of  Satan's  Strange  and 
Dreadful  Actings  in  and  about  tlie  Body  of  Ricliard  Dugdale,  &c.  &c." 
London,  1G'J7. 

'  See  Taylor's  "  The  Devil  turned  Casuist,"  «&c.  London,  1697. 
"  Lancashire  Levite  Rebuked,"  1G98,  and  "The  Surcy  Impostor."  The 
latter  I  copy  from  citations  in  "  A  Vindication  of  the  Surcy  Demo- 
niack," &.C.  London,  1698.  Such  as  wish  to  see  melancholy  specimens 
of  human  folly  may  consult  also  Barrows'  "The  Lord's  Arm  stretched 
out,"  &c.  &c.  London,  1664.  "  The  Second  Part  of  the  Boy  of  Bilson," 
&c.  «Sz,c.  London,  1698.  "A  Relation  of  the  Diabolical  Practices  of 
above  twenty  \Vitches  of  Renfreu,  «&c.  contained  in  their  tryals,  &c.  and 
for  which  several  of  them  have  been  executed  this  present  year,"  1697. 
London,  1697.  "  Sadducismus  Debellatus,  Narrative  of  the  Sorceries 
and  Witchcrafts  of  the  Devil  upon  Mrs.  Christian  Shaw,  «tc.  of 
Renfreu,"  &c.  London,  1698.  Howell  estimates  that  thirty  thousand 
suffered  death  for  Witchcraft,  in  England,  during  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years.  State  Trials,  Vol.  II.  p.  105],  as  cited  by  Chandler,  ubi  supra, 
p.  69. 


278  MIRACLES  OF  NO  USE. 

yet  fully  understood  ;  but  to  suppose,  on  such  evi- 
dence, that  God  departed  from  the  usual  law  of  the 
world,  in  these  cases,  is  not  very  rational,  to  say 
the  least. 

But  now  admitting  in  argument  that  Jesus 
wrought  all  the  miracles  alleged ;  that  his  birth 
and  resurrection  were  both  miraculous ;  that  he 
was  the  only  person  endowed  with  such  miracu- 
lous power  —  it  does  not  follow  that  he  shall  teach 
true  doctrine.  Must  a  revealer  of  transient  mira- 
cles to  the  sense  necessarily  be  a  revealer  of  eternal 
truth  to  the  soul  ?  It  follows  no  more  than  the 
reverse.  But  admit  it  in  argument.  Then  he 
must  never  be  mistaken  in  the  smallest  particular. 
But  this  is  contrary  to  fact;  for  he  taught  that  he 
should  appear  again  after  his  ascension,  and  the 
world  would  end  in  that  age. 

Practically  speaking,  a  miracle  is  a  most  dubious 
thing ;  in  this  case  its  proof  the  most  uncertain. 
But  on  the  supposition  our  conviction  of  the  truth 
of  Christianity  rests  on  the  fact  that  Christ  wrought 
the  alleged  miracles,  then  is  Christianity  itself  a 
most  uncertain  thing.  We  in  this  age  can  never  be 
so  sure  of  Religion,  though  our  soul  testify  to  its 
truth,  as  the  old  Jews,  who  rejected  Christianity, 
and  yet  had  their  senses  to  testify  to  the  miracles. 
The  proof  of  Christianity  was  the  sensation  of  the 
evangelists ;  we  can  be  no  more  certain  of  its  truth 
than  of  the  fact  that  Jesus  had  no  human  father  ! 

But  this  question  of  miracles,  whether  true  or 
false,  is  of  no  religious   significance.     When  Mr. 


CHRISTIANITY  TRUE  IN  ITSELF.  279 

Locke  said  the  doctrine  proved  tlio  miracle,  not  the 
miracle  the  doctrine,  he  admitted  their  worthless- 
ness.  They  can  be  useful  only  to  such  as  deny  our 
internal  power  of  discerning  truth. ^  Now  the  doc- 
trine of  Christianity  is  eternally  true.  It  requires 
only  to  be  understood  to  be  accepted.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter of  direct  and  positive  knowledge,  dependent  on 
no  outside  authority,  while  the  Christian  miracles 
are,  at  best,  but  a  matter  of  testimony,  and  there- 
fore of  secondary  and  indirect  knowledge.  The 
thing  to  be  proved  is  notoriously  true ;  the  alleged 
means  of  proof  notoriously  uncertain.     Is   it   not 


'  "  Let  us  see  how  far  inspiration  can  enforce  on  the  mind  any  opinion 
concerning  God  or  Jiis  worship,  when  accompanied  with  a  power  to  do  a 
miracle,  and  here  too  I  say,  the  last  determination  must  be  that  of  reason. 
1.  Because  reason  must  be  the  judge  what  is  a  miracle,  and  what  is  not, 
which — not  knowing  how  far  the  power  of  natural  causes  do  extend 
themselves,  and  what  strange  effects  they  may  produce  —  is  very  hard  to 
determine.  2.  It  icill  ahcays  be  as  great  a  miracle  that  God  should  alter 
the  course  of  natural  things,  as  overturn  the  principles  of  knowledge  and 
understanding  in  a  man,  by  setting  up  anything  to  be  received  by  him 
as  a  truth  which  his  reason  cannot  assent  to,  as  the  miracle  itself ;  and  so 
at  best  it  icill  be  but  one  miracle  against  another,  and  the  greater  still  on 
reason's  side  ;  it  being  harder  to  beheve  that  God  should  alter  and  put 
out  of  its  ordinary  course  some  phenomenon  of  the  great  world  for  once, 
and  make  things  act  contrary  to  their  ordinary  rule,  purposely,  that  the 
mind  of  man  might  do  so  always  afterwards,  than  that  this  is  some  fal- 
lacy or  natural  effect,  of  which  he  knows  not  the  cause,  let  it  look  never 
so  strange  ....  I  do  not  hereby  deny  in  the  least,  that  God  can  do,  or  hath 
done,  miracles  for  the  confirmation  of  truth ;  but  I  only  say  that  we  can- 
not think  he  should  do  them  to  enforce  doctrines  or  notions  of  himself  or 
any  worship  of  him  not  conformable  to  reason,  or  that  we  can  receive 
such  for  truth  for  the  miracle's  sake  ;  and  even  in  those  books  which 
have  the  greatest  proof  of  revelation  from  God, and  the  attestation  of  mira- 
cles to  confirm  their  being  so,  the  miracles  are  to  be  judged  by  the  doctrine, 
and  not  the  doctrine  by  the  miracle."  King's  Life  of  Locke,  Vol.  I.  p. 
231,  et  seq. 


280  TRUTH  COMES  FROM  GOD. 

better,  then,  to  proceed  to  Christianity  at  once,  for 
when  this  is  admitted  to  be  as  true  as  the  demon- 
strations and  axioms  of  science,  as  much  a  matter 
of  certainty  as  the  consciousness  of  our  existence, 
then  miracles  are  of  no  value.  They  may  be  in- 
teresting to  the  historian,  the  antiquary  or  physiolo- 
gist, not  to  us  as  Christians.  They  now  hang  as  a 
millstone  about  the  neck  of  many  a  pious  man,  who 
can  believe  in  Christianity,  but  not  in  the  trans- 
formation of  water  to  wine,  or  the  resurrection  of 
a  dead  body. 

Jesus,  then,  is  not  the  Author  of  Christianity,  but 
its  revealer ;  not  its  sanction  and  authority,  but 
the  messenger  through  whom  God  spoke  it  to  man- 
kind. We  verify  its  eternal  truth  in  our  soul. 
The  pure  water  of  life  must  come  from  the  well  of 
God  ;  if  it  be  this  it  matters  not  through  what 
channel  it  comes.  Let  it  be  shewn,  if  it  can  be, 
that  the  Gospels  are  false,  and  Jesus  mistaken,  still 
Christianity  is  eternally  true  if  it  be  the  Absolute 
Religion  ;  if  not  this  we  need  none  of  it. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    ESSENTIAL    PECULIARITY    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION. 

Christianity  agrees  generically  with  all  other 
forms  in  this,  that  it  is  a  Religion.  Its  peculiarity 
is  not  in  its  doctrine  of  one  Infinite  God  ;  of  the 
immortality  of  man,  nor  of  future  retribution.  It  is 
not  in  particular  rules  of  morality,  for  precepts  as 
true  and  beautiful  maybe  found  in  Heathen  writers, 
who  give  us  the  same  view  of  man's  nature,  duty 
and  destination.  The  great  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity were  known  long  before  Christ,  for  God  did 
not  leave  man  four  thousand  years  unable  to  find 
out  his  plainest  duty.  There  is  no  precept  of  Jesus, 
no  real  duty  commanded,  no  promise  offered,  no 
sanction  held  out,  which  cannot  be  paralleled  by 
similar  precepts  in  heathen  writers  before  him. 
The  pure  in  heart  saw  God  before  as  well  as  after 
him.  Every  imperfect  form  of  Religion  was,  more 
or  less,  an  anticipation  of  Christianity.  So  far  as 
a  man  has  real  Religion,  so  far  he  has  Christianity. 
This  is  as  old  as   the  human  race.^     By  its  light 


'■  See  Tindal,  Christianity  as  Old  as  the  Creation,  «S:c. 
36 


282  CHRISTIANITY  THE  ABSOLUTE. 

Zoroaster,  Confucius,  Socrates,  with  many  millions 
of  holy  souls,  walked  in  the  early  times  of  the  world. 
By  this  they  were  cheered  when  their  souls  were 
bowed  down,  and  they  knew  not  which  way  to 
turn.  They  and  their  kindred,  like  Moses,  were 
schoolmasters  to  prepare  the  world  for  Christianity  ; 
shadows  of  good  things  to  come  ;  the  day-spring 
from  on  high  ;  the  Bethlehem  star  announcing  the 
Perfect  Religion  which  was  to  follow.  Modern 
Christians  love  to  deny  that  there  are  points  of 
agreement  between  Christianity  and  its  predeces- 
sors. The  early  apologists  took  just  the  opposite 
course. 

Now  Christianity  really  differs  specifically  from 
all  other  forms  of  Rehgion  in  this  respect ;  it  is 
Absolute  Religion  and  Absolute  Morality. 
From  this  capital  distinction  there  proceed  several 
subordinate  differences. 

1.  It  differs  in  regard  to  the  point  whence  it  sets 
out.  They  start  from  something  bounded  and  defi- 
nite. Judaism  and  Mahometanism,  each  sets  out 
from  the  alleged  words  of  one  man,  which  are  made 
the  only  measure  of  Truth  for  the  whole  human 
race.  There  can  be  no  progress.  The  devotee  of 
Judaism  or  Mahometanism  must  logically  believe 
his  form  of  Religion  perpetual.  So  if  a  man  teach 
what  is  hostile  to  it,  he  must  be  put  to  death, 
though  his  doctrine  be  true. 

Christianity  sets  out  from  nothing  external  and 
limited,  but  from   the   Spirit  of  God  in  the  soul  of 


SOURCE  OF   CIIRISTIAMTY.  283 

man,  speaking  through  Reason,  Conscience,  and 
the  rehgious  Sentiment.  Its  Source,  therefore,  is 
the  Absolute.  Other  forms  of  Religion  depend  on 
a  transient  and  finite  person  ;  this  on  the  Infinite 
God.  Whatever  is  consistent  with  Reason,  Con- 
science, and  the  religious  Sentiment,  is  consistent 
with  Christianity,  all  else  is  hostile ;  whoever  obeys 
these  three  oracles  is  essentially  a  Christian,  though 
he  lived  ten  thousand  years  before  Christ,  or  living 
now,  does  not  own  his  name.  Let  men  improve 
in  Reason,  Conscience,  Religion,  in  what  most  be- 
comes a  man  —  they  outgrow  each  other  form  of 
worship  ;  they  pass  by  all  that  rests  on  historical 
things,  signs,  wonders,  miracles,  all  that  does  not 
rest  on  the  eternal  God,  ever  acting  in  man  ;  yet 
they  are  not  the  farther  from  Christianity,  but  all 
the  nearer  by  this  change.  These  things  are  left 
behind,  as  the  traveller  leaves  the  mire  and  stones 
of  the  road  he  travels  and  shakes  off  the  dust  of  his 
garments  as  he  approaches  some  queenly  city, 
throned  amid  the  hills,  and  looks  back  with  sorrow 
on  the  crooked  way  he  has  traversed,  where  others 
still  "  drag  their  slow  length  along."  Men  must 
come  to  Christianity  when  they  come  to  real  manly 
excellence.  Is  not  this  the  meaning  of  the  words  : 
I  am  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life  ;  no  man 
cometh  to  the  Father  but  by  me  ;  and  of  the  many 
kindred  j)assages  in  the  most  spiritual  of  the  Gos- 
pels ?  No  friend  of  Religion  and  of  man  can  be 
hostile  to  the  Christianity  of  Christ.  This  pro- 
poses no  partial  end,  but  an  absolute  Object  —  the 


284  CHRISTIANITY  NOT  A  SYSTEM. 

perfection  of  man,  or  oneness  with  God.  There- 
fore it  leaves  man  perfect  freedom  ;  the  liberty  that 
comes  of  obedience  to  the  Law  of  the  Spirit  of  Life. 
All  other  forms  of  worship,  ancient  and  modern,  con- 
fine men  in  a  dungeon  ;  make  them  think  the  same 
thought,  and  speak  the  same  word,  and  worship  in 
the  same  way  ;  Christianity  gives  them  the  range 
of  the  world,  scope  and  verge  enough.  Where  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  Liberty  ;  the  liberty 
of  perfect  obedience  ;  the  largest  liberty  of  the  sons 
of  God.  Reason  and  Love  are  hostile  to  a  limited 
religion,  which  says,  Believe,  Believe  ;  they  wel- 
come the  Religion  of  Jesus,  which  says.  Be  perfect 
as  God. 

2.  A  second  peculiarity  is  this  :  It  is  not  a  Sys- 
tem of  Religion  and  Life,  but  a  Method  of  Religion 
and  Life.  It  lays  down  no  positive  creed  to  be 
believed  in  ;  commands  no  positive  action  to  be 
done  ;  it  would  make  the  man  perfectly  obedient 
to  God,  leaving  his  thoughts  and  actions  for  Reason 
and  Conscience  to  govern.  It  widens  the  sphere  of 
thought  and  life  ;  it  reaffirms  the  great  religious 
truths  implied  in  man's  nature ;  shows  their  practi- 
cal application  and  its  result.  A  religious  system, 
with  its  forms,  ritual,  creeds,  lops  off  the  sacred 
peculiarities  of  individual  character;  chains  Reason 
and  fetters  the  will  ;  seeks  to  unite  men  in  arbi- 
trary creeds  and  forms  —  where  the  union  can  be 
but  superficial  and  worthless  —  and  it  lays  stress 
on  externals.  Christianity  insists  on  rightness 
before  God  ;  ties  no  man  down  to  worship  in  this 


BCT  A   METHOD  OF  RELIGION.  285 

mountain,  nor  yet  in  Jerusalem  ;  on  tlie  first  day 
of  the  week,  or  the  last  day ;  in  the  church,  or  the 
fields  ;  socially  or  in  private  ;  with  a  creed,  ritual, 
priest,  symbol,  spoken  prayer,  or  without  these. 
It  breaks  every  yoke,  seen  or  invisible  ;  bids  man 
worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  It  does  not  ask  a 
man  to  call  himself  a  Christian,  or  his  Religion 
Christianity.  It  bids  him  be  perfect ;  never  says 
to  Reason,  Thus  far  and  no  farther;  forbids  no 
freedom  of  inquiry,  nor  wide  reach  of  thought ;  fears 
nothing  from  the  Truth,  or  for  it.  It  never  en- 
courages that  cowardice  of  soul  which  dares  not 
think,  nor  look  facts  in  the  face,  but  sneaks  behind 
altars,  texts,  tradition,  because  they  are  of  the 
fathers ;  that  cowardice  which  counts  a  mistake  of 
the  apostles  better  than  truth  in  you  and  me,  and 
which  reads  both  Piety  and  Common  Sense  out  of 
its  church  because  they  will  not  bow  the  knee  nor 
say  the  creed.  Christianity  asks  no  man  to  believe 
the  Old  Testament,  or  the  New  Testament,  the 
divine  infallibility  of  Moses  or  Jesus,  but  to  prove 
all  things  ;  hold  fast  what  is  good  ;  do  the  will  of 
the  Father  ;  love  man  and  God. 

The  method  of  Christianity  is  a  very  plain  one. 
Obedience,  not  to  that  old  teacher,  or  this  new 
one  ;  but  to  God,  who  filleth  all  in  all,  to  His  Law 
written  on  the  tablets  of  the  heart.  Its  Method, 
therefore,  like  its  Source  and  its  Object  and  its 
Aim,  is  absolute  ;  the  method  of  God  revealed  in 
the  law  of  the  Soul.  It  exhorts  men  to  a  divine 
life,  not  as  something  foreign    but  as  something  na- 


286  ITS  PRACTICAL  CHARACTER. 

tive  and  welcome  to  man.  It  is  the  life  of  many 
Systems  of  Religion,  Theology,  and  practical  Mo- 
rality, as  the  ocean  has  many  waves  and  bubbles ; 
but  these  are  not  Christianity  more  than  a  wreath 
of  foam  is  the  Atlantic. 

3.  It  differs  from  others  in  its  eminently  practical 
character.  Since  Christianity  is  the  absolute  Re- 
ligion, starts  from  the  absolute  source,  proposes  an 
absolute  object,  pursues  the  absolute  method,  it  must 
lay  most  stress  on  things  most  valuable.  Hence 
it  counts  a  divine  life  better  than  saying  "  Lord, 
Lord ; "  puts  mercy  before  sacrifice,  and  pro- 
nounces a  gift  to  man  better  than  a  gift  to  God. 
It  dwells  much  on  the  brotherhood  of  men  ;  anni- 
hilates national  and  family  distinctions ;  all  are 
sons  of  God,  and  brothers ;  man  is  to  love  his 
brother  as  himself,  and  bless  him,  and  thus  serve 
God.  It  values  man  above  all  things.  Is  he  poor, 
weak,  ignorant,  sinful,  it  does  not  scorn  him,  but 
labors  all  the  more  to  relieve  the  fallen.  It  sees 
the  "  archangel  ruined  "  in  the  sickly  servant  of 
Sin.  It  looks  on  the  immortal  nature  of  man,  and 
all  little  distinctions  vanish.  It  bids  each  man 
labor  for  his  brother,  and  never  give  over  till  Igno- 
rance, Want,  and  Sin  are  banished  from  the  earth ; 
to  count  a  brother's  sufferings,  sorrows,  wrongs, 
as  our  sufferings,  sorrows  and  wrongs,  and  redress 
them.  It  says.  Carry  the  Truth  to  all.  Before 
Jesus,  the  Greek,  the  Roman,  and  the  Jew,  went 
to  other  lands  to  learn  their  arts,  customs,  and  laws, 
study  their  religion.     Who  ever  went  to  teach  re- 


•* 


NOTHING  BETWEEN   MAN  AND  GOD.  287 

ligion,   not  for   his  own,  but  his   brother's  sake  ? 
History  is  silent. 

Christianity  allows  no  man  to  sever  himself  from 
the  race,  making  this  world  an  Inn  for  him  to  take 
his  ease.  It  does  nothing  for  God's  sake,  each  for 
its  own  sake  ;  sends  the  devotee  from  his  prayers 
to  make  peace  w'ilh  his  brother;  does  not  rob  a 
man's  father  to  enrich  God  ;  nor  fancy  He  needs 
any  thing,  sacrifice,  creeds,  fasts,  or  prayers.  It 
makes  worship  consist  in  being  good,  and  doing 
good  ;  faith  within  and  works  without ;  the  test  of 
greatness  the  amount  of  good  done.  Thus  it  is 
not  a  Religion  of  temples,  days,  ceremonies,  but  of 
the  street,  the  fire-side,  the  field-side.  Its  temple 
is  all  space ;  its  worship  in  spirit  and  truth  ;  its 
ceremony  a  good  life,  blameless  and  beautiful ;  its 
priest  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  soul ;  its  altar  a 
heart  undefilcd.  It  places  duty  above  cant.  It 
promises  as  the  result  of  obedience  —  oneness  with 
God,  and  inspiration  from  Him.  It  offers  no  sub- 
stitute for  this,  for  nothing  can  do  the  work  of 
goodness  and  Religion  but  goodness  and  Religion. 
It  offers  no  magic  to  wipe  sin  out  of  the  soul,  and 
ensure  the  rewards  of  Religion  without  sharing  its 
fatigues ;  knows  nothing  of  vicarious  goodness. 
Its  Heaven  is  doing  God's  will  now  and  forever, 
thus  it  makes  no  antithesis  between  this  and  the 
next  life.  It  puts  nothing  between  man  and  God  ; 
makes  Jesus  our  friend  not  our  master  ;  a  teacher 
who  blesses,  not  a  tyrant  who  commands  us ;  a 
brother  who  pleads  with  us,  not  an  Attorney  who 


288  PECULIARITIES  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

pleads  with  God,  still  less  a  sacrifice  for  sins  he 
never  committed,  and  therefore  could  not  expiate. 

These  are  not  the  peculiarities  oftenest  insisted 
on,  and  taught  as  Christianity  ;  it  is  not  the  mys- 
tery, the  miraculous  birth,  the  incarnation,  the 
God-man,  the  miracles,  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy, 
the  transfiguration,  the  atonement,  the  resurrection, 
the  angels,  the  ascension,  the  "  five  points ;  "  other 
religions  have  enough  such  things — but  it  is  the 
Absolute  Religion  in  Christianity  that  is  peculiar. 
Alas,  such  is  not  the  Christianity  of  the  Church,  at 
this  day,  nor  at  any  day  since  the  crucifixion  ;  but 
is  it  not  the  Christianity  of  Christ,  the  one  only 
Religion,  everlasting,  ever  blest  ? 


CHAPTER    VI. 


THE     IMORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS     CHARACTER    OF    JESUS    OF 
NAZARETH. 

Reverence  and  Tradition  have  woven  about 
Jesus  such  a  shining  veil,  that  with  the  imperfect 
and  doubtful  materials  in  our  hands,  it  is  not  easy 
to  determine  in  detail  and  with  minuteness,  the 
character  that  moved  and  lived  among  his  fellow 
men,  and  commenced  what  may  be  called  the 
Christian  movement.  The  difficulty  is  twofold  :  to 
get  rid  of  traditional  prejudice,  and  to  get  at  the 
facts.  Perhaps  it  is  impossible  to  separate  the  pure 
fact  from  the  legendary  and  mythological  drapery  that 
surrounds  it.  Besides,  the  Gospels  pretend  to  cover 
but  a  few  months  of  his  active  life.  Still  some 
conclusion  may  be  reached.  From  Christianity  we 
have  separated  the  life  and  character  of  Jesus,  that 
we  might  try  the  doctrine  by  absolute  Religion  ;  it 
now  remains  to  examine  the  life  of  the  man  by  the 
standard  himself  has  given. 

37 


290  ALLEGED  ERRORS  OF  JESUS. 


I.   The  Negative  Side,  or  the  Limitations  of  Jesus. 

It  is  apparent  that  Jesus  shared  the  erroneous 
notions  of  the  times  respectine;  devils,  possessions, 
and  demonologj  in  general.  If"  we  may  credit  the 
Evangelists,  he  was  in  error  on  these  points.  But 
he  never  set  up  for  a  teacher  of  physiology.  The 
acceptance  of  this  popular  error  is  no  impeachment 
of  his  moral  and  religious  excellence,  no  more  than 
ignorance  of  the  steam-engine.  The  errors  of  great 
men  are  the  glory  of  dunces,  but  of  dunces  alone. 

He  was  mistaken  in  his  interpretation  of  the  Old 
Testament,  if  we  may  take  the  word  of  the  Gos- 
pels. But  if  he  supposed  that  thc^  writers  of  the 
Pentateuch,  the  Psalms,  and  the  Prophecies,  spoke 
of  him  ;  if  he-  applied  their  poetic  figures  to  him- 
self, it  is  yet  but  a  trifling  mistake,  affecting  a 
man's  head  not  his  heart.  It  is  no  more  necessary 
for  Jesus  than  for  Luther  to  understand  all  ancient 
literature,  and  be  familiar  with  criticism  and  anti- 
quities, though  with  men  who  think  Religion  rests 
on  his  infallibility,  it  must  be  indeed  a  very  hard 
case  for  Christianity. 

Sometimes  he  is  said  to  be  an  enthusiast,  who 
hoped  to  found  a  visible  kingdom  in  Jndea,  by  mi- 
raculous aid,  as  the  prophets  had  distinctly  foretold 
their  "Messiah"  should  do;  that  he  should  be  a 
King  on  earth,  and  his  disciples  also,  not  forgetting 
Judas,  should  sit  on  twelve  thrones  and  Judge  the 
restored  tribes ;  that  he  should  return  in  the  clouds. 


*.♦ 


ALLEGED  FAULTS  OF  JESUS.  291 

Certainly  a  strong  case,  very  strong,  may  be  niade 
out  from  the  Synoptics  to  favor  this  cliarge.  But 
what  then?  Even  if  the  fact  were  admitted,  and 
the  dull  evangelists  h:ive  not  thrust  their  own  fan- 
cies into  his  mouth,  it  does  not  militate  with  his 
morality  and  religion.  How  many  a  saint  has  been 
mistaken  in  such  matters!  His  honesty,  zeal,  self- 
sacrifice,  heavenly  purity  still  shine  out  in  every 
word  and  work  of  his  life.' 

Another  charge,  sometimes  brought  against  him, 
and  the  only  one  at  all  affecting  his  moral  and  reli- 
gious character,  is  this  ;  that  he  denounces  his  op- 
ponents in  no  measured  terms ;  calls  the  Pharisees 
"  hypocrites  "  and  "  children  of  the  devil."  We 
cannot  tell  how  far  the  historians  have  added  to  the 
fierceness  of  this  invective,  but  the  general  fact 
must  probably  remain,  that  he  did  not  use  courteous 
speech.  We  must  Judge  a  man  by  his  highest 
moment.  His  denunciation  of  sleek,  hollow  Pha- 
risees, is  certainly  lower  than  the  prayer,  "  Fa- 
ther forgive  them  ;  "  not  consistent  with  the  highest 
thought  of  humanity.  Considering  the  youth  of 
the  man,  it  was  a  very  venial  error,  to  make  the 
worst  of  it.  The  case  called  for  vigorous  treat- 
ment. Shall  a  man  say,  "  Peace,  peace,"  when 
there  is  no  peace  ?  Sharp  remedies  are  for  invete- 
rate and  critical  disease.     It    is   not   with   honied 


'  On  this  point  see,  who  will,  the  charges  against  Jesus  in  the  Wolf- 
enbdttel.  Fragmente  ;  in  the  Wrilingi  of  Wtinsch,  Rahidt,  Paalzow,  and 
Salvador.  See  also  Hennell,  ubi  supra,  Ch.  XVI.,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  Reinhard's  Plan  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity.     Andover,  1831. 


292 


THE   BEAUTY  OF  LOVE   IN  HIM. 


words,  neither  then  nor  now,  that  great  sins  are  to 
be  exposed.  It  is  a  pusillanimous  and  most  mean- 
spirited  wisdom  that  demands  a  religious  man  to 
prophesj  smooth  things,  lest  Indolence  be  rudely 
startled  from  his  sleep,  and  the  delicate  nerves  of 
Sin,  grown  hoary  and  voluptuous  in  his  hypocrisy, 
be  smartly  twitched.  It  seems  unmanly  and  ab- 
surd to  say  a  man  filled  with  divine  ideas  should 
have  no  indignation  at  the  world's  wrong.  Rather 
let  it  be  said.  No  man's  indignation  should  be  like 
his,  so  deep,  so  uncompromising,  but  so  holy  and 
full  of  love.  Let  it  be  indignation ;  not  personal 
spleen  ;    call  sin  5m,  sinners  by  their  right  name. 

Yet  in  this  general  and  righteous,  though  it 
might  seem  too  vehement,  indignation  against  men 
when  he  speaks  of  them  as  a  class  and  representa- 
tives of  an  idea,  there  is  no  lack  of  charity,  none  of 
love,  when  he  speaks  with  an  individual.  He  does 
not  denounce  timid  Nicodemus,  who  came  by  night, 
for  fear  of  the  Jews ;  does  not  speak  harshly  to 
that  young  man  who  went  away  sorrowful,  his 
great  possessions  on  the  one  hand  and  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven  on  the  other;  does  not  call  Judas 
a  traitor,  and  Simon  Peter  a  false  liar  as  he  was ; 
says  only  to  James  and  John  —  ambitious  youths  — 
they  know  not  what  they  ask ;  never  addresses 
scornful  talk  to  a  Pharisee,  or  long-robed  doctor  of 
the  law,  Herodians  or  Scribes,  spite  of  their  wide 
phylacteries,  their  love  of  uppermost  seats,  their  de- 
vouring of  widows'  houses  in  priv^ate,  their  prayers 
and  alms  to  be  seen  of  men.     He  only  states  the 


.* 


WISDOM  COMES  LATE  IN   LIFE.  293 

fact,  but  plainly  and  strongly,  to  their  very  face. 
Even  for  these  men  his  soul  is  full  of  affection. 
He  could  honor  an  Ilerodian  ;  j)ray  for  a  Scribe  ; 
love  even  a  Pharisee.  It  was  not  hatred,  personal 
indignation,  but  love  of  man,  u  hich  lit  that  burning 
zeal,  and  denounced  such  as  sat  in  Moses'  seat,  boast- 
ing themselves  children  of  Abraham,  when  they  were 
children  of  the  Devil,  and  did  his  works  daily  — 
dutiful  children  of  the  father  of  lies.  How  he  wail- 
ed like  a  child  for  the  mother  that  bore  him  :  "  Oh 
Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  thou  that  killest  the  prophets 
and  stonest  them  that  are  sent  unto  thee  !  "  How 
he  prayed  like  a  mother  for  her  desperate  son,  "  Fa- 
ther forgive  them  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 
Are  these  the  words  of  one  that  could  hate  even  the 
wickedest  of  the  deceitful  ?  Who  then  can  love  his 
fellow-men?  Arrogance,  personal  animosity,  selfish- 
ness—  of  all  these  not  the  faintest  shadow  falls  on 
him. 

H.    The  Positive  Side,  or  the  Excellencies  of  Jesus. 

In  estimating  the  character  of  Jesus  it  must  be 
remembered  that  he  died  at  an  age  when  man  has 
not  reached  his  fullest  vigor.  The  great  works  of 
creative  intellect ;  the  maturest  products  of  man  ; 
all  the  deep  and  settled  plans  of  reforming  the 
world,  come  from  a  period,  when  experience  gives  a 
wider  field  as  the  basis  of  hope.  Socrates  was  but 
an  embryo  sage  till  long  after  the  age  of  Jesus. 
Poems  and  Philosophies  that  live,  come   at  a  later 


294  HOLY  WISDOM  OF  JESUS. 

date.  Now  here  we  see  a  young  man,  but  little 
more  than  thirty  years  old,  with  no  advantage  of 
position  ;  the  son  and  companion  of  rude  people ; 
born  in  a  town  whose  inhabitants  were  wicked  to  a 
proverb ;  of  a  nation  above  all  others  distinguished 
for  their  superstition,  for  national  pride,  exaltation 
of  themselves  and  contempt  for  all  others  ;  in  an 
age  of  singular  corruption,  when  the  substance  of 
religion  had  faded  out  from  the  mind  of  its  anointed 
ministers,  and  sin  had  spread  wide  among  a  people 
turbulent,  oppressed,  and  down-trodden ;  a  man 
ridiculed  for  his  lack  of  knowledge,  in  this  nation 
of  forms,  of  hypocritical  priests  and  corrupt  people, 
falls  back  on  simple  Morality,  simple  Religion, 
unites  in  himself  the  sublimest  precepts  and  divin- 
est  practices,  thus  more  than  realizing  the  dream 
of  prophets  and  sages  ;  rises  free  from  all  preju- 
dice of  his  age,  nation,  or  sect ;  gives  free  range 
to  the  spirit  of  God  in  his  breast ;  sets  aside  the 
law,  sacred  and  time-honored  as  it  was,  its  forms, 
its  sacrifice,  its  temple  and  its  priests ;  puts  away 
the  doctors  of  the  law,  subtle,  learned,  irrefragable, 
and  pours  out  a  doctrine,  beautiful  as  the  light, 
sublime  as  Heaven,  and  true  as  God.  The  Phi- 
losophers, the  Poets,  the  Prophets,  the  Rabbis,  —  he 
rises  above  them  all.  Yet  Nazareth  was  no  Athens, 
where  Philosophy  breathed  in  the  circumambient 
air ;  it  hiid  neither  porch  nor  portico,  not  even 
a  school  of  the  Piophets.  There  is  God  in  the 
heart  of  this  youth.  Old  teachers,  past  times,  the 
dead  letter  of  forms  a  century  deceased,  enslaved 


HIS  TREATMENT  OF  SINNKRS.  295 

his  fellow-men,  the  great,  the  wise ;  what  were  they 
to  him  ?  Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead.  Men  had 
reverence  for  institutions  so  old,  so  deep-rooted,  so 
venerably  bearded  with  the  moss  of  age.  Should 
not  he,  at  least,  with  that  sweet  conservatism  of  a 
pious  heart,  sacrifice  a  little  to  human  weakness, 
and  put  his  zeal,  faith,  piety,  into  the  old  religious 
form,  sanctified  by  his  early  recollections,  the  ten- 
der prayer  of  his  mother,  and  a  long  line  of  saints  ? 
New  wine  must  be  put  into  new  bottles,  says  the 
young  man,  triumphing  over  a  sentiment,  natu- 
ral and  beautiful  in  its  seeming;  triumphant  where 
strife  is  most  perilous,  victory  rarest  and  most  diffi- 
cult. The  Priest  said  Keep  the  law,  and  reverence 
the  Prophets.  Jesus  sums  up  the  excellence  of 
both.  Love  man  and  love  God,  leaving  the  chaff  of 
Moses,  and  the  husk  of  Ezekiel,  with  their  "  Thus- 
saith-the-Lord,"  to  go  to  their  own  place,  where 
the  wind  might  carry  them. 

He  looked  around  him  and  saw  the  wicked,  men 
who  had  served  in  the  tenth  legion  of  sin,  pierced 
with  the  lances  and  torn  with  the  shot ;  men  scar- 
red and  seamed  all  over  with  wounds  got  dishonor- 
ably in  that  service  ;  men  squalid  with  this  hideous 
disease,  their  moral  sense  blinded,  their  nature  per- 
verse, themselves  fallen  from  the  estate  of  Godli- 
ness to  which  they  were  made,  and  unable,  so  they 
fancied,  to  lift  themselves  up  ;  men  who  called  good 
evil,  and  evil  good,  —  he  bade  them  rise  up  and 
walk,  waiting  no  longer  for  a  fancied  redeemer  that 
would  never  come.     He  told  them  they  also  were 


296  TREATMENT  OF  THE  OPPRESSOR. 

men  ;  children  of  God,  and  heirs  of  Heaven,  would 
they  but  obey.  So  corrupt  were  they,  there  was 
no  open  vision  for  them.  The  voice  of  God  was 
a  forgotten  sound  in  their  bosoms.  To  them  he 
said,  1  am  the  good  Shepherd  ;  follow  me.  At  the 
sight  of  their  penitence  he  says.  Thy  sins  are  for- 
given thee.  Is  not  penitence  itself  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins,  the  dawn  of  reconciliation  with  God  ? 
He  showed  men  their  sin,  the  disease  of  the  soul 
living  false  to  its  law  ;  told  them  then*  salvation  ; 
bade  them  obey  and  be  blessed. 

He  saw  the  oppressor,  with  his  yoke  and  heavy 
burthen  for  man's  neck  ;  the  iron  that  enters  the 
soul ;  men  who  were  the  corrupters,  the  bane,  the 
ruin  of  the  land  ;  base  men  with  an  honorable  front; 
low  men,  crawling,  as  worms,  their  loathesome 
track  in  high -places ;  deceitful  hucksters  of  salva- 
tion, making  God's  house  of  prayer  a  den  of  thieves, 
fair  as  marble  without,  but  rottenness  within. 
What  wonder  if  Love,  though  the  fairest  of  God's 
daughters,  at  sight  of  such  baseness,  pours  out  the 
burning  indignation  of  a  man  stung  with  the  tyran- 
ny of  the  strong,  ashamed  at  the  patience  of  man- 
kind ;  the  word  of  a  man  fearless  of  all  but  to  be 
false  when  Truth  and  Duty  bid  him  speak  ?  To 
call  the  Whelp  of  Sin  a  devil's  child  —  is  that  a 
crime  ?  Doubtless  it  is,  in  men  stirred  by  passion  ; 
not  in  a  soul  filled  to  the  brim  and  overflowing  with 
love. 

He  looks  on  the  nation,  the  children  of  pious 
Abraham ;  men  for  whom  Moses  made  laws,  and 


JESUS   AND  Tin:  PHARISEES.  297 

Samuel  held  the  sceptre,  and  David  prayed,  and 
prophets  admonished  in  vain,  pouring  out  their  blood 
as  water ;  men  for  whom  psalmist  and  priest  and 
seer  and  king  had  prayed  and  wept  in  vain, — well 
might  he  cry,  "  Oh  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem."  Few 
heard  his  cries.  That  mightiest  heart  that  ever 
beat,  stirred  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  how  it  wrought 
in  his  bosom  !  What  words  of  rebuke,  of  comfort, 
counsel,  admonition,  promise,  hope,  did  he  pour  out ; 
words  that  stir  the  soul  as  summer  dews  call  up 
the  faint  and  sickly  grass  !  What  profound  instruc- 
tion in  his  proverbs  and  discourses  ;  what  wisdom 
in  his  homely  sayings,  so  rich  with  Jewish  life  ; 
what  deep  divinity  of  soul  in  his  prayers,  his  action, 
sympathy,  resignation  !  Persecution  comes,  he  bears 
it ;  contempt,  it  is  nothing  to  him.  Persecuted  in 
one  city,  he  flees  into  another.  Scribes  and  Phari- 
sees say  He  speaketh  against  Moses  ;  he  replies. 
The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand.  They  look 
back  to  the  past,  and  say.  We  have  Abraham  to  our 
father ;  he  looks  to  the  Comforter,  and  says,  Call 
no  man  your  Father  on  Earth.  They  say,  He  eats 
bread  with  unwashed  hands,  plucks  corn  and  re- 
lieves disease  on  the  holy  Sabbath-day,  when  even 
God  rested  from  his  labors  ;  he  says.  Worship  the 
Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  They  look  out  to 
their  Law,  its  Festivals,  its  Levites,  its  Chief 
Priests,  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  of  the  earth, 
the  Temple  and  the  Tithe  ;  he  looks  in  to  the  Soul, 
Purity,  Peace,  Mercy,  Goodness,   Love,   Religion. 

38 


298  JESUS   AND  THE  PHARISEES. 

The  extremes  meet  often  in  this  world.  Comedy 
and  Tragedy  jostle  each  other  in  every  dirty  lane.' 
But  here  it  was  the  Flesh  and  the  Devil  on  one 
side,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  other. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

MISTAKES   ABOUT   JESUS  —  HIS    RECEPTION   AND   INFLUENCE. 

We  often  err  in  our  estimate  of  this  man.  The 
image  comes  to  us,  not  of  that  lowly  one  ;  the  car- 
penter of  Nazareth ;  the  companion  of  the  rudest 
men  ;  hard-handed  and  poorly  clad  ;  not  having 
where  to  lay  his  head ;  "  who  would  gladly  have 
stayed  his  morning  appetite  on  wild  figs,  between 
Bethany  and  Jerusalem  ;  "  hunted  by  his  enemies  ; 
stoned  out  of  a  city,  and  fleeing  for  his  life.  We 
take  the  fancy  of  poets  and  painters  ;  a  man  clothed 
in  purple  and  fine  linen,  obsequiously  attended  by 
polished  disciples,  who  watched  every  movement 
of  his  lips,  impatient  for  the  oracle  to  speak.  We 
conceive  of  a  man  who  was  never  in  doubt,  nor 
fear ;  whose  course  was  all  marked  out  before  him, 
so  that  he  could  not  err.  But  such  it  was  not,  if 
the  writers  tell  truly.  Did  he  say,  I  came  to  fulfil 
the  Law  and  the  Prophets,  and  it  is  easier  for 
Heaven  and  Earth  to  pass,  than  for  one  jot  or  tittle 
of  the  Law  to  fail  ?  Then  he  must  have  doubted, 
and  thought  often  and  with  a  throbbing  heart,  before 


^^  * 


300  JESUS  NOT  NOW  APPRECIATED. 

he  could  say,  I  am  not  come  to  bring  peace,  but  a 
sword  ;  to  kindle  a  fire,  and  would  God  it  were 
kindled  —  many  times  before  the  fulness  of  peace 
dwelt  in  him,  and  he  could  say.  The  hour  cometh 
and  now  is,  when  the  true  worshiper  shall  worship 
in  spirit  and  in  truth.  We  do  not  conceive  of  that 
sickness  of  soul  which  must  have  come  at  the  cold- 
ness of  the  wise  men,  the  heartlessness  of  the 
■worldly,  at  the  stupidity  and  selfishness  of  the  dis- 
ciples. We  do  not  think  how  that  heart,  so  great, 
so  finely  tuned,  and  delicately  touched,  must  have 
been  pained  to  feel  there  was  no  other  heart  to  give 
an  answering  beat.  We  know  not  the  long  and 
bitter  agony  that  went  before  the  triumph-cry  of 
faith,  1  am  not  alone,  for  the  Father  is  with  me  ;  we 
do  not  heed  that  faintness  of  soul  which  comes  of 
hope  deferred,. of  aspirations  all  unshared  by  men,  a 
bitter  mockery,  the  only  human  reply,  the  oft- 
repeated  echo  to  his  prayer  of  faith.  We  find  it 
difficult  to  keep  unstained  our  decent  robe  of  good- 
ness when  we  herd  only  with  the  good  and  shun 
the  kennel  where  sin  and  misery,  parent  and 
child,  are  huddled  with  their  rags  ;  we  do  not  ap- 
preciate that  strong  and  healthy  pureness  of  soul 
which  dwelt  daily  with  iniquity,  sat  at  meat  with 
publicans  and  sinners,  and  yet  with  such  cleanness 
of  life  as  made  even  sin  ashamed  of  its  ugliness, 
but  hopeful  to  amend.  Rarely,  almost  never,  do 
we  see  the  vast  divinity  within  that  soul,  which, 
new  though  it  was  in  the  flesh,  at  one  step  goes 
before  the  world  whole  thousands  of  years  ;  judges 


JESUS  THE   HOPE  OF   MANKIND.  30] 

the  race  ;  decides  for  us  questions  we  dare  not 
agitate  as  yet,  and  breathes  the  very  breath  of 
heavenly  love.  The  Christian  world,  aghast  at  such 
awful  beauty  in  the  flesh  ;  transfixed  with  wonder 
as  such  a  spirit  rises  in  his  heavenly  flight,  veils  its 
face  and  says,  It  is  a  God.  Such  thoughts  are  not 
for  men.  Such  life  betrays  the  God.  And  is  it 
not  the  Divine  which  the  flesh  enshrouds ;  to  speak 
in  figures,  the  brightness  of  his  glory,  the  express 
image  of  his  person  ;  the  clear  resemblance  of  the 
all-beautiful ;  the  likeness  of  God  in  which  man  is  — "*• 

made  ?  But  alas  for  us,  we  read  our  lesson  back- 
ward ;  make  a  God  of  our  brother,  who  should  be 
our  model.  So  the  new-fledged  eaglets  may  see 
the  parent  bird,  slow  rising  at  first  with  laborious 
efforts,  then  cleaving  the  air  with  sharp  and  steady 
wing,  and  soaring  through  the  clouds,  with  eye  un- 
dazzled,  to  meet  the  sun  ;  they  may  say,  We  can 
only  pray  to  the  strong  pinion.  But  anon  their 
wings  shall  grow,  and  flutter  impatient  for  con- 
genial skies,  and  their  parent's  example  guide  them 
on.  But  men  are  still  so  sunk  in  sloth,  so  blind 
and  deaf  with  sensuality  and  sin,  they  will  not  see 
the  greatness  of  man  in  him,  who,  falling  back  on 
the  inspiration  God  imparts,  asks  no  aid  of  mortal 
men,  but  stands  alone,  serene  in  awful  loveliness, 
not  fearing  the  roar  of  the  street,  the  hiss  of  the 
temple,  the  contempt  of  his  townsmen,  the  cold- 
ness of  this  disciple,  the  treachery  of  that ;  who 
still  bore  up,  had  freest  communion  when  all 
alone  ;  was  deserted,  never  forsaken  ;  betrayed,  but 


302  HIS  ONENESS   WITH  GOD. 

Still  safe ;  crucified,  but  all  the  more  triumphant. 
This  was  the  last  victory  of  the  soul ;  the  highest 
type  of  man.  Blessed  be  God  that  so  much  man- 
liness has  been  lived  out,  and  stands  there  yet,  a 
lasting  monument  to  mark  how  high  the  tides  of 
divine  life  have  risen  in  the  world  of  man.  It  bids 
us  take  courage,  and  be  glad,  for  what  man  has 
done,  he  may  do. 

"  Jesus,  there  is  no  dearer  name  than  thine, 
Which  Time  has  blazoned  on  his  mighty  scroll ; 
No  wreaths  nor  garlands  ever  did  entwine 
So  fair  a  temple  of  so  vast  a  soul. 
There  every  Virtue  set  his  triumph-seal ; 
Wisdom  conjoined  with  Strength  and  radiant  Grace, 
In  a  svi'eet  copy  Heaven  to  reveal. 
And  stamp  Perfection  on  a  mortal  face  ; 
Once  on  the  earth  wert  thou,  before  men's  eyes, 
That  did  not  half  thy  beauteous  brightness  see  ; 
E'en  as  the  Emmet  does  not  read  the  skies. 
Nor  our  weak  orbs  look  through  immensity." 

The  doctrine  he  taught  was  the  Father's,  not  his ; 
the  personal  will  did  not  mingle  its  motes  with  the 
pure  religious  light  of  Truth  ;  it  fell  through  him 
as  through  void  space,  not  colored,  not  bent  aside. 
Here  was  the  greatest  soul  of  all  the  sons  of  men  ; 
one  before  whom  the  majestic  mind  of  Grecian 
sages,  and  of  Hebrew  seers  must  veil  its  face.  His 
perfect  obedience  made  him  free.  So  complete 
was  it  that  but  a  single  will  dwelt  in  him  and  God, 
and  he  could  say,  I  and  the  Father  are  one.  For 
this  reason  his  teaching  was  absolute.  God's  Word 
was  in  him.  Try  him  as  we  try  other  teachers. 
They  deliver  their  word,  find  a  few  waiting  for 


THE  OPPOSITION  111:  MET.  303 

the  consolation,  who  accept  the  new  tidings,  follow 
the  new  method,  and  soon  go  beyond  their  teacher, 
though  less  mighty  minds  than  he.  Such  is  the 
case  with  each  founder  of  a  school  in  philosophy, 
each  sect  in  Religion.  Though  humble  men,  we 
see  what  Socrates  and  Luther  never  saw.  But 
eighteen  centuries  have  past  since  the  Sun  of 
humanity  rose  so  high  in  Jesus  ;  what  man,  what 
sect,  what  church  has  mastered  his  thought ;  com- 
prehended his  method,  and  so  fully  applied  it  to 
life  !  Let  the  world  answer  in  its  cry  of  anguish. 
Men  have  parted  his  raiment  among  them  ;  cast  lots 
for  his  seamless  coat ;  but  that  spirit  which  toiled 
so  manfully  in  a  world  of  sin  and  death  ;  w  hich  did 
and  suffered,  and  overcame  the  world,  —  is  that  found, 
possessed,  understood  ?  Nay,  is  it  sought  for  and 
recommended  by  any  of  our  churches  ? 

But  no  excellence  of  aim ;  no  sublimity  of  achieve- 
ment could  screen  him  from  distress  and  suffering. 
The  fate  of  all  Saviours  was  his  —  despised  and 
rejected  of  men.  His  father's  children  "  did  not 
believe  in  him ;"  his  townsmen  "  were  offended  at 
him,"  and  said  "  whence  hath  he  this  wisdom  ?  Is 
not  this  the  son  of  Joseph,  the  carpenter  r"  Those 
learned  scribes  who  came  all  the  way  from  Jerusa- 
lem to  entangle  him  in  his  talk,  could  see  only  this, 
"  He  hath  Beelzebub."  "  Art  thou  greater  than 
our  father  Jacob  r"  asked  a  conservative.  Some 
said  "  He  is  a  good  man."  "  Ay,"  said  others, 
but  "He  speaketh  against  the  temple."    The  sharp- 


304  MISREPRESENTATION   OF   THE   PRIESTS. 

eyed  Pharisees  saw  nothing  marvellous  in  the  case. 
Why  not  ?  They  were  looking  for  signs  and  won- 
ders in  the  heavens ;  not  sermons  on  the  mount, 
and  a  "  Wo-unto-you,  Scribes  and  Pharisees  ;"  they 
looked  for  the  Son  of  David,  a  king,  to  rule  over 
men's  bodies,  not  the  son  of  a  peasant-girl,  born  in 
a  stable ;  the  companion  of  fishermen  ;  the  friend 
of  publicans  and  sinners,  who  spoke  to  the  outcast ; 
brought  in  the  lost  sheep,  and  so  ruled  in  the  soul, 
his  kingdom  not  of  this  world.  They  said,  "  He  is 
a  Galilean,  and  of  course  no  prophet."  If  he  called 
men  away  from  the  senses  to  the  soul,  they  said 
"  He  is  beside  himself."  "  Have  any  of  the  rulers 
or  the  pharisees  believed  on  him  ?"  asked  some  one 
who  thought  that  settled  the  matter.  When  he 
said  if  a  man  live  by  God's  law,  "  he  shall  never  see 
death,"  they  exclaimed,  those  precious  shepherds 
of  the  people,  "  Now  we  know  thou  hast  a  devil, 
and  art  mad.  Abraham  is  dead,  and  the  prophets ! 
Art  thou  greater  than  our  father  Abraham  ?  Who 
are  you,  sir  ?"  What  a  faithful  report  would 
Scribes  and  Pharisees  and  Doctors  of  the  Law, 
have  made  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount ;  what 
omissions  and  redundancies  would  they  not  have 
found  in  it ;  what  blasphemy  against  Moses  and 
the  Law,  and  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  and  the 
Urim  and  the  Thummin,  and  the  Meat-offering  and 
the  New-moons ;  what  neglect  to  mention  the 
phylacteries,  and  the  shew-bread  and  the  Levite, 
and  the  priest  and  the  tithes,  and  the  other  great 
essentials   of  Religion  ;    what   "  infidelity "   must 


THE  TRIE  HEAR  THE  TRUTH.  305 

these  pious  souls  have  dctinted  !  How  must  they 
have  classed  him  with  Korah,  Dathan  and  Abiram, 
the  mythological  "Tom-Paines"  of  old  time  ;  with 
the  men  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah !  The  popular 
praise  of  the  young  Nazarcne,  with  his  divine  life 
and  lip  of  lire  ;  the  popular  shout,  "  Hosannah  to 
the  Son  of  David,"  was  no  doubt  "  a  stench  in  the 
nostrils  of  the  righteous."  "  When  the  Son  of  Man 
Cometh,  shall  he  iind  fi\'n\\  on  the  earth  r"  Find 
Faith?  He  comes  to  bring  it.  It  is  only  by  cru- 
cified redeemers  that  the  world  is  saved.  Prophets 
are  doomed  to  be  stoned  ;  apostles  to  be  sawn 
asunder.  The  Avorld  knoweth  its  own,  and  loveth 
them.  Even  so  let  it  be ;  the  stoned  prophet  is 
not  without  his  reward.  The  balance  of  God  is 
even. 

Yet  there  were  men  who  heard  the  new  word. 
Truth   never  yet  fell  dead   in   the  streets  ;  it  has 
such  affinity  with   the  soul  of  man,  the  seed,  how- 
ever broad-cast,  will  catch  somewhere,  and  produce 
its  hundredfold.     Some  kept  his  sayings  and  pon- 
dered   them   in   their   heart.     Others    heard  them 
gladly.     Did   priests   and  Levites  stop  their  ears? 
Publicans  and  harlots   went  into  the  kiniidom  of 
God  before  them.     Those   blessed  women,  whose 
hearts  God  has  sown  deepest  with  the  orient  pearl 
offoith;  they  w^ho  ministered  to  him  in  his  wants, 
washed  his  feet  with  tears  of  penitence,  and  wiped 
them  with  the  hairs  of  their  heard,  was  it  in  vain 
he   spoke   to  them  ?     Alas  for  the  anointed  priest, 
the  child  of  Levi,  the  son  of  Aaron,  men  who  shut 

39 


306  RECEPTION  OF  HIS  WORDS    WITH 

up  inspiration  in  old  books,  and  believed  God  was 
asleep.  Tbej  stumbled  in  darkness,  and  fell  into 
the  ditcli.  But  doubtless  there  was  many  a  tear- 
stained  face  that  brightened  like  fires  new  stirred 
as  Truth  spoke  out  of  Jesus'  lips.  His  word  sway- 
ed the  multitude  as  pendant  vines  swing  in  the 
summer  wind ;  as  the  spirit  of  God  moved  on  the 
waters  of  chaos,  and  said  "  Let  there  be  light,"  and 
there  was  light.  No  doubt  many  a  rude  fisherman 
of  Gennesareth  heard  his  words  with  a  heart  bound- 
ing and  scarce  able  to  keep  in  his  bosom,  went 
home  a  new  man,  with  a  legion  of  angels  in  his 
breast,  and  from  that  day  lived  a  life  divine  and 
beautiful.  No  doubt,  on  the  other  hand,  Rabbi 
Kozeb  Ben  Shatan,  when  he  heard  of  this  elo- 
quent Nazarene,  and  his  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
said  to  his  disciples  in  private  at  Jerusalem,  This 
new  doctrine  will  not  injure  us,  prudent  and  edu- 
cated men  ;  we  know  that  men  may  worship  as 
well  out  of  the  temple  as  in  it ;  a  burnt-offering  is 
nothing ;  the  ritual  of  no  value ;  the  Sabbath  like 
any  other  day ;  the  Law  faulty  in  many  things,  of- 
fensive in  some,  and  no  more  from  God  than  other 
laws  equally  good.  We  know  that  the  priesthood 
is  a  human  affair,  originated  and  managed  like 
other  human  affairs.  We  may  confess  all  this  to 
ourselves,  but  what  is  the  use  of  telling  of  it?  The 
people  wish  to  be  deceived  ;  let  them.  The  Phari- 
see will  conduct  wisely  like  a  Pharisee  —  for  he 
sees  the  eternal  fitness  of  things  —  even  if  these 
doctrines  should   be  proclaimed.     But  this  people, 


.* 


THE   PHARISEE   AND  THE    FISHERMAN.  307 

who  know  not  the  law,  what  will  become  of  them  ? 
Simon  Peter,  James  and  John,  those  poor  uidct- 
tered  fishermen,  on  llic  lake  of  Galilee,  to  whom 
we  gave  a  farthing  and  the  priestly  blessing  in  our 
summer  excursion,  what  will  become  of  them  when 
told  that  every  word  of  the  Law  did  not  come 
straight  out  of  the  mouth  of  Jehovah,  and  the  ritual 
is  nothing  !  They  will  go  over  to  the  Flesh  and 
the  Devil,  and  be  lost.  It  is  true,  that  the  Law 
and  the  Prophets  are  well  summed  up  in  one  word. 
Love  God  and  man.  But  never  let  ?/5  sanction  the 
saying,  it  would  ruin  the  seed  of  Abraham  ;  keep 
back  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  "  destroy  our  use- 
fulness." Thus  went  it  at  Jerusalem.  The  new 
word  was  "  Blasphemy,"  the  new  prophet  an  "  In- 
fidel," "  beside  himself,  had  a  devil."  But  at  Gal- 
ilee, things  took  a  shape  somewhat  different ;  one 
which  blind  guides  could  not  foresee.  The  com- 
mon people,  not  knowing  the  Law,  counted  him  a 
prophet  come  up  from  the  dead,  and  heard  him 
gladly.  Yes,  thousands  of  men,  and  women  also, 
with  hearts  in  their  bosoms,  gathered  in  the  field 
and  pressed  about  him  in  the  city  and  the  desert 
place,  forgetful  of  hunger  and  thirst,  and  were  fed 
to  the  full  with  his  words,  so  deep  a  child  could 
understand  them ;  James  and  John  leave  all  to  fol- 
low him  who  had  the  word  of  eternal  life  ;  and  when 
that  young  carpenter  asks  Peter,  Whom  saycst  thou 
that  I  am  ?  it  has  been  revealed  to  that  poor  un- 
lettered fisherman,  not  by  flesh  and  blood,  but  by 
the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  he  can  say.  Thou  art 


308  FIRST  EFFECT  OF  CHRISTlAJSITy. 

the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God.  The  Phari- 
see went  his  way,  and  preached  a  doctrine  that  lie 
knew  was  false  ;  the  fisherman  also  went  his  way, 
but  which  to  the  Flesh  and  the  Devil  ?  ^ 

We  cannot  tell,  no  man  can  tell  the  feelings 
which  the  large  free  doctrines  of  absolute  Religion 
awakened  when  heard  for  the  first  time.  There  must 
have  been  many  a  Simeon  waiting  for  the  consola- 
tion ;  many  a  Mary  longing  for  the  better  part ; 
many  a  soul  in  cabins  and  cottages  and  stately 
dwellings,  that  caught  glimpses  of  the  same  truth 
as  God's  light  shone  through  some  crevice  which 
Piety  made  in  that  wall  Prejudice  and  Superstition 
had  built  up  betwixt  man  and  God  ;  men  who  scarce 
dared  to  trust  that  revelation  — "  too  good  to  be 
true  "  —  such  was  their  awe  of  Moses,  their  rever- 
ence for  the.  priest.  To  them  the  word  of  Jesus 
must  have  sounded  divine ;  like  the  music  of  their 
home  sung  out  in  the  sky,  and  heard  in  a  distant 
land,  beguiling  toil  of  its  weariness,  pain  of  its 
sting,  affliction  of  despair.  There  must  have  been 
men,  sick  of  forms  which  had  lost  their  meaning ; 
pained  with  the  open  secret  of  sacerdotal  hypocrisy ; 
hungering  and  thirsting  after  the  truth,  yet  whom 
Error,  and  Prejudice,  and  Priestcraft  had  blinded  so 
that  they  dared  not  think  as  men,  nor  look  on  the 
sun-light  God  shed  upon  the  mind. 


'  See  in  the  Dial,  for  January,  1812,  the  article  on  Primitive  Chris- 
tianity, for  some  similar  thoughts  on  this  subject. 


CHRISTIANITY  AGAINST  THK  WORLD.  309 

But  see  what  a  work  it  has  wrouglit.  Men  could 
not  hold  the  word  iu  their  bosoms ;  it  would  not  be 
still.  No  doubt  they  sought  —  those  rude  disciples 
—  after  their  teacher's  death,  to  quiet  the  matter 
and  say  nothing  about  it ;  they  had  nerves  that 
quivered  at  the  touch  of  steel ;  wives  and  children 
whom  it  was  hard  to  leave  behind,  to  the  world's 
uncertain  sympathy  ;  respectable  friends  it  may  be, 
who  said  The  old  Law  did  very  well.  Let  well 
enough  alone.  The  people  must  be  deceived  a 
little.  The  world  can  never  be  much  mended. 
No  doubt  Truth  stood  on  one  side,  and  Ease  on 
the  other ;  it  has  often  been  so.  Perhaps  the  dis- 
ciples went  to  the  old  synagogue  more  sedulous  than 
before  ;  paid  tithes  ;  kept  the  new-moons  ;  were 
sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  the  sacrifice  ;  made 
low  bows  to  the  Levite  ;  sought  his  savory  conver- 
sation, and  kept  the  rules  a  priest  gave  George 
Fox.  But  it  would  not  do.  There  was  too  much 
truth  to  be  hid.  Even  selfish  Simon  Peter  has  a 
cloven  tongue  of  fire  in  his  mouth,  and  he  and  the 
disciples  go  to  their  work,  the  new  word  swelling 
in  their  laboring  heart. 

Then  came  the  strangest  contest  the  world  ever 
saw.  On  the  one  side  is  all  the  strength  of  the 
world  —  the  Jews  with  their  Records,  from  the 
hand  of  Moses,  David,  and  Esaias  ;  supernatural 
records,  that  go  back  to  the  birth  of  time ;  their 
Law  derived  from  Jehovah,  attested  by  miracles, 
upheld  by  prophets,  defended  by  priests,  children  of 
Levi,  sons  of  Aaron,  the   Law   which  was  to   last 


310  THE  CONTEST  BETWEEN 

forever ;  the  Temple,  forty  and  seven  years  in  be- 
ing built,  its  splendid  ceremonies,  its  beautiful  gate 
and  golden  porch  ;  there   vi^as   the   wealth  of  the 
powerful ;  the  pride,  the  self-interest,  the  prejudice 
of  the  priestly  class  ;  the  indifference  of  the  world- 
ly ;  the   hatred  of  the  wicked ;  the   scorn  of  the 
learned  ;  the  contempt  of  the  great.     On  the  same 
side  were  the  Greeks,  with   their  Chaos  of  Reli- 
gion, full  of  mingled   beauty  and  ugliness,  virtue 
and  vice,  piety  and  lust,  still   more  confounded  by 
the  deep  mysteries  of  the  priest,  the  cunning  spec- 
ulations of  the   sophist,  the  awful  sublimity  of  the 
sage,  by  the  sweet  music  of  the  philosopher,   and 
moralist  and  poet,  who  spoke  and  sung  of  man  and 
God  in  strains  so  sweet  and  touching  ;  there  were 
rites  in  public ;  solemn  and  pompous  ceremonies, 
processions,  festivals,  temples,  games  to  captivate 
that  wondrous  people ;  there  were  secret  myste- 
ries, to  charm  the  curious  and  attract  the   thouo^ht- 
ful ;  Greece,  with  her  Arts,  her   Science,  her  He- 
roes and  her  Gods,  her  Muse,  voluptuous  and  sweet. 
There   too  was  Rome,  the  Queen  of  nations,  and 
Conqueror  of  the  world,  who  sat  on  her  seven-hilled 
throne,  and  cast  her   net  eastward  and  southward 
and  northward  and  westward,  over  tower  and  city 
and  realm  and  empire,  and  drew  them  to  herself,  a 
giant's  spoil ;  with  a  Religion  haughty  and  inso- 
lent, that  looked  down  on  the  divinities  of  Greece 
and  Egypt,  of  "  Ormus  and  the  Ind,"  and  gave 
them  a  shelter  in  her  capacious  robe  ;  Rome,  with 
her  practised   skill  ;    Rome,   with   her   eloquence ; 


THE    WORLD   AIND  CHRISTIANITY.  311 

Rome,  with  her  pride  ;  Rome,  with  her  arms,  hot 
from  the  conquest  of  a  thousand  kings.  On  the 
same  side  are  all  the  institutions  of  all  the  world  ; 
its  fables,  wealth,  armies,  pride,  its  folly  and  its  sin. 
On  the  other  hand,  are  a  few  Jewish  fishermen, 
untaught,  rude  and  vulgar ;  not  free  from  gross 
errors  ;  despised  at  home,  and  not  known  abroad  ; 
collected  together  in  the  name  of  a  young  carpenter, 
who  died  on  the  gallows,  and  whom  they  declared 
to  be  risen  from  the  dead ;  men  with  no  ritual,  no 
learning,  no  books,  no  brass  in  their  purse,  no 
philosophy  in  their  mind,  no  eloquence  on  their 
tongue.  A  Roman  Ske})tic  might  tell  how  soon 
these  fanatics  would  fall  out,  and  destroy  them- 
selves, after  serving  as  a  terror  to  the  maids  and 
sport  to  the  boys  of  a  Jewish  hamlet,  and  so  that 
"  detestable  superstition "  come  to  an  end !  A 
priest  of  Jerusalem,  with  his  oracular  gossip,  could 
tell  how  long  the  Sanhedrim  would  suffer  them  to 
go  at  large,  in  the  name  of  "  that  deceiver,"  whose 
body  "  they  stole  away  by  night"  !  Alas  for  what 
man  calls  great ;  the  pride  of  prejudice  ;  the  boast 
of  power.  These  fishermen  of  Galilee  have  a  truth 
the  world  has  not,  so  they  are  stronger  than  the 
world.  Ten  weak  men  may  chain  down  a  giant ; 
but  no  combination  of  errors  can  make  a  truth  or 
put  it  down  ;  no  army  of  the  ignorant  equal  one 
man  that  has  the  Word  of  Life.  Besides,  all  the 
truth  in  Judea,  Greece,  Rome,  was  an  auxiliary  to 
favor  the  new  doctrine. 

The  first  preachers  of  Christianity  had  false  no- 


312       CHRISTIANITY  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  NATIONS. 

tions  on  many  points  ;  they  were  full  of  Jewish 
fables  and  technicalities  ;  thought  the  world  would 
soon  end,  and  Jesus  come  back  "  with  power  and 
great  glory."  Peter  would  now  and  then  lie  to 
serve  his  turn ;  Paul  was  passionate,  often  one-sided ; 
Barnabas  and  Mark  could  not  agree.  There  was 
something  of  furious  enthusiasm  in  all  these  come- 
outers.  James  roars  like  a  fanatic  radical  at  the 
rich  man.  But,  spite  of  the  follies  or  limitations  of 
these  earnest  and  manly  Jews,  a  religious  fire  burned 
in  their  hearts ;  the  Word  of  God  grew  and  pre- 
vailed. The  new  doctrine  passes  from  its  low  be- 
ginnings on  the  Galilean  lake,  step  by  step,  through 
Jerusalem,  Ephesus,  Antioch,  Alexandria,  Corinth, 
Rome,  till  it  ascends  the  throne  of  the  world,  and 
kings  and  empires  lie  prostrate  at  its  feet.^  But, 
alas,  as  it  spreads  it  is  corrupted  also.  Judaism, 
Paganism,  Idolatry,  mingle  their  feculent  scum  with 
the  living  stream,  and  trouble  the  water  of  Life. 

Christianity  came  to'  the  world  in  the  darkness 
of  the  nations  ;  they  had  outgrown  their  old  form, 
and  looked  for  a  new.  They  stood  in  the  shadow 
of  darkness,  fearing  to  look  back,  not  daring  to  look 
forward  ;  they  groped  after  God.  Christianity  came 
to  the  Nations  as  a  beam  of  light  shot  into  chaos ; 
a  strain  of  sweet  music,  —  so  silvery  and  soft  we 
know  not  we  are  listenine;,  —  to  him  who  wanders  on 


'  See,  who  will,  the  Dial  for  October,  1840,  Article  "  A  Lesson  for  the 
Day." 


FEARS  FOR  CHRISTLVNITY.  313 

amid  the  uncertain  gloom,  and  charms  him  to  tlic 
Light,  to  the  River  of  God  and  the  Tree  of  Life. 
It  was  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  of  holy  hearts. 
It  is  human  Religion,  human  JMorality,  and  above 
all  things  reveals  the  greatness  of  man. 

It  is  sometimes  feared  that  Christianity  is  in  dan- 
ger ;  that  its  days  are  numbered.'  Of  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  church,  no  doubt  it  is  true.  That 
child  of  many  fathers  cannot  die  too  soon.  It  cum- 
bers the  ground.  But  the  Christianity  of  Christ, 
absolute  Religion,  absolute  Morality,  cannot  perish; 
never  till  Love,  Goodness,  Devotion,  Faith,  Rea- 
son, fail  from  the  heart  of  man  ;  never  till  God 
melts  away  and  vanishes,  and  nothing  takes  the 
place  of  the  AU-in-All.  Religion  can  no  more  be 
separated  from  the  race,  than  thought  and  feeling, 
nor  absolute  Religion  die  out  more  than  wisdom 
perish  from  among  men.  Man's  words,  thoughts, 
churches,  fail  and  pass  off  like  clouds  from  the  sky 
that  leave  no  track  behind.  But  God's  Word  can 
never  change.  It  shines  perennial  like  the  stars. 
Its  testimony  is  in  man's  heart.  None  can  outgrow 
it ;  none  destroy.  For  eighteen  hundred  years,  the 
Christianity  of  Christ  has  been  in  the  world,  to 
warn  and  encourage.  Violence  and  Cunning,  allies 
of  Sin,  have  opposed  it.  Every  weapon  Learning 
could  snatch  from  the  arsenals  of  the  past,  or  Sci- 
ence devise  anew,  or  Pride,  and  Cruelty,  and  Wit 

'  See  Comte  and  Leroux,  ubi  sup.  passim,  and  de  Potter,  Hist.  Philo- 
Bophique  politique  et  critique  du  Christianisnio,  liru.xellcs,  ]83^,  Vol.  I. 
Introd.  §  1. 

40 


314  CHRISTIANITY  NOT  TRANSIENT. 

invent,  has  been  used  by  mistaken  man  to  destroy 
this  fabric.  Not  a  stone  has  fallen  from  the  heavenly 
arch  of  real  Religion ;  not  a  loop-hole  been  found 
where  a  shot  could  enter.  But  alas,  vain  doctrines, 
follies,  absurdities,  without  count,  have  been  piled 
against  the  temple  of  God,  marring  its  beauteous 
shape.  That  Christianity  continues  to  live,  spite 
of  the  traditions,  fables,  doctrines  wrapped  about 
it  —  is  proof  enough  of  its  truth.  Reason  never 
warred  against  love  of  God  and  man,  never  with 
the  Christianity  of  Christ,  but  always  with  that  of 
the  church.^  There  is  much  destructive  work  still 
to  be  done,  which  scoffers  will  attempt. 

Can  man  destroy  absolute  Religion  ?  He  cannot 
wuth  all  the  arts  and  armies  of  the  world  destroy 
the  pigment  that  colors  an  emmet's  eye.  He  may 
obscure  the  Truth  to  his  own  mind.  But  it  shines 
forever  unchanged.  So  boys  of  a  summer's  day 
throw  dust  above  their  heads,  to  blind  the  sun  ;  they 
only  hide  it  from  their  blinded  eyes. 

'  Even  M.  de  Potter  wars  only  against  Christianity  "  hierarchically 
organized."  "Jesus  and  his  principles  of  social  equality,  of  universal 
brotherhood,  are  to  him  the  meek,  sublime  manifestation  of  the  moral 
man  "  ubi  sup.  Vol,  I.  p.  II. 


BOOK  IV 


"  No  man  would  be  so  ridiculou3  as  (since  Columbus  discovered  the 
new  world  of  America,  as  big  as  the  old,  since  the  enlarged  knowledge 
of  the  North  of  Europe,  the  South  and  East  of  Asia  and  Africa,  besides 
the  new  divisions,  names  and  inhabitants  of  the  old  parts,)  to  forbid  the 
reading  of  any  more  Geography  than  is  found  in  Strabo,  or  Mela ;  or, 
since  the  Portuguese  have  sailed  to  the  Indies  by  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  to  admit  of  no  other  Indian  commodities  than  what  are  brought 
on  Camels  to  Aleppo;  or  if  posterity  shall  find  out  the  North-east,  or 
North  west  way  to  Cathajo  and  China,  or  shall  cut  the  Isthmus  between 
the  Red  Sea  and  the  Mediterranean,  will  it  be  unlawful  to  use  the  ad- 
vantage of  such  noble  achievements  ?  If  any  man  love  acorns  since 
corn  is  invented,  let  him  eat  acortis ;  but  it  is  very  unreasonable  he 
should  forbid  others  the  use  of  wheat.  Whatever  is  solid  in  the  writings 
of  Aristotle,  these  new  philosophers  will  readily  embrace  ;  and  they  that 
are  most  accused  for  affecting  the  neio,  doubt  not  but  they  can  give  as 
good  an  account  of  the  old  philosophy  as  their  most  violent  accusers,  and 
are  probably  as  much  conversant  in  Aristotle's  writings,  though  they  do 
not  much  value  these  small  wares  that  are  usually  retailed  by  the  gen- 
erality of  his  interpreters."  A  brief  Jiccount  of  the  neic  Sect  of  Latitude- 
men,  by  G.  B.     Oxford,  1662,  p.  13-14. 


iSt 


BOOK   lY. 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  RELIGIOUS  SENTIMENT  TO  THE  GREAT- 
EST OF   BOOKS,  OR  A   DISCOURSE  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


CHAPTER    I. 

POSITION   OF  THE  BIBLE CLAIMS  MADE  FOR  IT STATEMENT 

OF    THE    QUESTION. 

View  it  in  what  light  we  may,  the  Bible  is  a 
very  surprising  phenomenon.  In  all  Christian, 
lands,  this  collection  of  hooks  is  separated  from 
every  other,  and  called  sacred  ;  others  are  profane. 
Science  may  differ  from  them,  not  from  this.  It  is 
deemed  a  condescension  on  the  part  of  its  friends, 
to  show  its  agreement  with  Reason.  How  much 
has  been  written  by  condescending  theologians  to 
show  the  Bible  was  not  inconsistent  with  the  de- 
monstrations of  Newton.  Should  a  man  attempt 
to  reestablish  the  cosmogonies  of  Hesiod  and  San- 
choniathon,  to  allegorize  the  poems  of  Anacreon 
and  Theocritus  as  divines  mystify  the  Scripture,  it 
would  be  said  he  wasted  his  oil,  and  truly. 

This  collection  of  books  has  taken  such  an  hold 


318 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


on  the  world  as  no  other.    The  literature  of  Greece, 
which  goes  up  like  incense  from  that  land  of  tem- 
ples and  heroic  deeds,  has  not  half  the  influence  of 
this  book  for  a  nation  alike  despised    in   ancient 
and  modern  times.     It  is  read  of  a  Sabbath  in  all 
the  ten  thousand  pulpits  of  our  land.     In  all  the 
temples  of  Christendom  is  its  voice  lifted  up,  week 
bj  week.     The  sun  never   sets  on  its  gleaming 
page.     It  goes  equally  to  the  cottage  of  the  plain 
man  and  the  palace  of  the  king.     It  is  woven  into 
the  literature  of  the  scholar,  and  colors  the  talk  of 
the  street.     The  bark  of  the  merchant  cannot  sail 
the  sea  without  it ;  no  ship  of  war  go  to  the  con- 
flict   but    the    Bible    is    there.       It    enters     men's 
closets ;  mingles  in  all  the  grief  and  cheerfulness 
of  life.    The  affianced  maiden  prays  God  in  Scrip- 
ture for  strength  in  her  new  duties';  men  are  mar- 
ried  by   Scripture.     The  Bible    attends    them   in 
their  sickness,  when  the  fever  of  the  world  is  on 
them.    The  aching  head  finds  a  softer  pillow  when 
the  Bible  lies  underneath.     The  mariner,  escaping 
from  shipwreck,  clutches  this  first  of  his  treasures, 
and  keeps  it  sacred  to  God.     It  goes  with  the  ped- 
lar, in  his  crowded  pack  ;  cheers  him  at  even-tide, 
when  he  sits  down  dusty  and  fatigued  ;  brightens 
the  freshness  of  his  morning  face.     It  blesses  us 
when  we  are  born ;  gives  names  to  half  Christen- 
dom ;    rejoices   with   us ;    has    sympathy   for   our 
mourning ;    tempers  our  grief  to  finer  issues.     It 
is  the  better  part  of  our  sermons.     It  lifts  man 
above  himself;  our  best  of  uttered  prayers  are  in  its 


♦ 
*» 


ITS  DEEP  Ai\D  LASTING  POWER.  319 

Storied  speech,  wherewith  our  fathers  and  the  patri- 
archs prayed.  The  timid  man,  about  awaking  from 
this  dream  of  life,  looks  through  the  glass  of  Scrip- 
ture and  his  eje  grows  briglit  ;  he  does  not  fear  to 
stand  alone,  to  tread  the  way  unknown  and  distant, 
to  take  the  death-angel  by  the  hand  and  bid  fare- 
well to  wife,  and  babes,  and  home.  Men  rest  on 
this  their  dearest  hopes.  It  tells  them  of  God,  and 
of  his  blessed  Son  ;  of  earthly  duties  and  of  heav- 
enly rest.  Foolisli  men  find  it  the  source  of  Plato's 
wisdom,  and  the  science  of  Newton,  and  the  art 
of  Raphael.  Men  who  believe  nothing  else  that  is 
spiritual,  believe  the  Bible  all  through  ;  without 
this  they  would  not  confess,  say  they,  even  that 
there  was  a  God. 

Now  for  such  effects  there  must  be  an  adequate 
cause.  That  nothing  comes  of  nothing  is  true  all 
the  world  over.  It  is  no  light  thing  to  hold,  with 
an  electric  chain,  a  thousand  hearts,  though  but  an 
hour,  beating  and  bounding  with  such  fiery  speed. 
What  is  it  then  to  hold  the  Christian  world,  and 
that  for  centuries  ?  Are  men  fed  with  chaff'  and 
husks  ?  The  authors  we  reckon  great,  whose  word 
is  in  the  newspapers,  and  the  market-place,  whose 
articulate  breath  now  sways  the  nation's  mind,  will 
soon  pass  away,  giving  place  to  other  great  men 
of  a  season,  who  in  their  turn  shall  follow  them  to 
eminence,  and  then  oblivion.  Some  thousand  fa- 
mous writers  come  up  in  this  century,  to  be  forgot- 
ten in  the  next.  But  the  silver  cord  of  the  Bible 
is  not  loosed,  nor  its  golden  bowl  broken,  as  Time 


320  CLAIMS  MADE  FOR  THE  BIBLE, 

chronicles  his  tens  of  centuries  passed  bj.  Has  the 
human  race  gone  mad  ?  •  Time  sits  as  a  refiner  of 
metal  ;  the  dross  is  piled  in  forgotten  heaps,  but 
the  pure  gold  is  reserved  for  use,  passes  into  the  ages, 
and  is  current  a  thousand  years  hence  as  well  as  to- 
day. It  is  only  real  merit  that  can  long  pass  for 
such.  Tinsel  will  rust  in  the  storms  of  life.  False 
weights  are  soon  detected  here.  It  is  only  a  heart 
that  can  speak,  deep  and  true,  to  a  heart ;  a  mind 
to  a  mind  ;  a  soul  to  a  soul  ;  wisdom  to  the  wise, 
and  religion  to  the  pious.  There  must  then  be  in 
the  Bible,  mind,  heart  and  soul,  wisdom  and  reli- 
gion. Were  it  otherwise  how  could  millions  find  it 
their  lawgiver,  friend  and  prophet  ?  Some  of  the 
greatest  of  human  institutions  seem  built  on  the 
Bible  ;  such  things  will  not  stand  on  heaps  of  chaff 
but  mountains  of  rock. 

What  is  the  secret  cause  of  this  wide  and  deep 
influence?  It  must  be  found  in  the  Bible  itself,  and 
must  be  adequate  to  the  effect.  To  answer  the 
question  we  must  examine  the  Bible,  and  see 
whence  it  comes,  what  it  contains,  and  by  what 
authority  it  holds  its  place.  If  we  look  superficially, 
it  is  a  collection  of  books  in  human  language,  from 
different  authors  and  times;  we  refer  it  to  a  place 
amongst  other  books  and  proceed  to  examine  it  as 
the  works  of  Homer  or  Xenophon.  But  the  popular 
opinion  bids  us  beware,  for  we  tread  on  holy  ground. 
The  opinion  commonly  expressed  by  the  Protestant 
churches  is  this  :  The  Bible  is  a  miraculous  collec- 


MASTER  OF  THK  SOUL.  321 

tion  of  miraculous  books  ;  every  word  it  contains 
was  written  by  a  miraculous  inspiration  from  God, 
which  was  so  full,  complete,  and  infallible,  that  the 
authors  delivered  the  truth  and  nothing  but  the 
truth  ;  that  the  Bible  contains  no  false  statemcrit  of 
doctrine  or  fact,  but  sets  forth  all  religious  and  moral 
truth  which  man  needs,  or  which  it  is  possible  for 
him  to  attain,  and  no  particle  of  error.  Therefore 
that  the  Bible  is  the  only  authoritative  rule  of  reli- 
gious faith  and  practice.^  To  doubt  this  is  reck- 
oned a  dangerous  error,  if  not  an  unpardonable  sin. 
This  is  the  supernatural  view.  Some  churches  sljly 
reject  the  divine  authority  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Others  reject  it  openly,  but  cling  strongly  as  ever 
to  the  New.  Some  make  a  distinction  between 
the  genuine  and  the  spurious  books  of  the  New 
Testament;  thus  there  is  a  difference  in  the  less  or 
more  of  an  inspired  and  miraculous  canon.  The 
modern  Unitarians  have  perhaps  reduced  the  Scrip- 
ture to  its  lowest  terms.  But  Protestants,  in  gen- 
eral, in  America,  agree  that  in  the  whole  or  in  part 
the  Bible  is  an  infallible  and  exclusive  standard 
of  religious  and  moral  truth.      The  Bible  is  master 

'  It  is  scarce  necessary  to  cite  authorities  to  prove  this  statement,  as 
it  is  a  notorious  fact.  But  see  the  most  obvious  sources,  Westminster 
Catechism,  Quest.  2  ;  Calvin's  Institutes,  Book  I.  Ch.  VI.  —  IX. ;  Knapp, 
ubi  sup.  §  1-13,  especially  Vol.  I.  p.  130,  et  seq.  See  also  Gaussen's 
Theopneusty,  or  the  plenary  Inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  trans- 
lated by  E.  N.  Kirk,  New  York,  1842.  The  latter  maintains  that  "  all  the 
written  Word  is  inspired  of  God  even  to  a  single  iota  or  little,"  p.  333. 
and  passim.  See  Musculus,  Loci  communes,  ed.  I.'ti-l,  p  178.  Put  see 
also  Socinus,  De  Auctoritate,  Sac.  Scrip,  in  Biblioihcca  Fratrr.  Polon. 
Vol.  I. ;  Limborch,  Theol.  Ch.  I.  ;  Episcopius  Inslit.  P.  IV. 
41 


322  THE   METHOD  OF   PROVIJNG 

to  the  soul ;  superior  to  Reason;  truer  than  Con- 
science ;  greater  and  more  trustworthy  than  the 
religious  Sentiment.  Accordingly,  with  strict  logi- 
cal consistency,  a  peculiar  method  is  used  both  in 
the  criticism  and  interpretation  of  the  Bible  ;  such  as 
men  apply  to  no  other  ancient  documents.  A  defer- 
ence is  paid  to  it  wholly  independent  of  its  intrinsic 
merit.  It  is  presupposed  that  each  book  within  the 
lids  of  the  Bible  has  an  absolute  right  to  be  there, 
and  each  sentence  or  word  therein  is  infallibly  true.^ 
Reason  has  nothing  to  do  in  the  premises,  but  ac- 
cept the  written  statement  of  "  the  Word  ;  "  the 
duty  of  belief  is  just  the  same  whether  the  Word 
contradict  Reason  and  Conscience,  or  agrees  with 
them.^ 

Now  this  opinion  about  the  Bible  is  true,  or  not 
true.  If  true  it  is  capable  of  proof,  at  least  of  be- 
ing shown  to  be  probable.  Now  there  are  but  four 
possible  ways  of  establishing  the  fact,  namely: 

1.  By  the  authority  of  the  Church,  which  has 
either  a  miraculous  inspiration,  or  a  miraculous  tra- 
dition, to  prove  the  alleged  infallibility  of  the  Bible. 
But  the  church  is  not  agreed  on  this  point.     The 

'  The  Writings  of  the  Unitarians  are  exceptions  to  this  general  rule. 
They  attempt  to  separate  the  spurious  from  the  genuine.  See  the  Chris- 
tian Examiner,  passim;  Norton,  Statement  of  Reasons,  &c.  p.  136,  et 
seq.  Evidences  of  the  genuineness  of  the  Gospels,  Vol.  I.  p  liii.  et 
seq.  See  especially  p.  Ixi.  Dr.  Palfrey,  ubi  sup.  denies  the  miraculous 
inspiration  of  all  the  Old  Testament,  except  the  last  four  books  of  Moses, 
and  there  diminishes  its  intensity. 

^  See  Gaussen,  ubi  sup.  Home,  Introduction  to  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
Philad.  1840,  Vol.  I.  p.  1-187. 


THE   DIVINITY   OF  THE   BIBLE.  323 

Roman  churcli,  very  stoutly  denies  the  fact,  and 
besides,  the  Protestants  deny  the  authority  of  the 
church. 

2.  B])  the  direct  testimony  of  God  in  the  hearty  as- 
suring us  of  the  miraculous  infallibilitv  of  the  Bil)Ie. 
Here  is  one  miracle  to  prove  another,  which  is  not 
logical.  The  proof  is  only  subjective^  and  is  as 
valuable  to  j)rove  the  divinity  of  the  Koran,  the 
Shaster  and  the  Book  of  Mormon,  as  that  of  the 
Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures.  It  is  the  argu- 
ment of  the  superstitious  and  enthusiastical. 

3.  By  the  fact  that  the  Bible  claims  this  divine 
infallibility.  This  is  reasoning  in  a  circle,  though 
it  is  the  method  commonly  relied  on  by  Christians. 
It  will  prove  the  divinity  of  any  impostor  who 
claims  it.' 

4.  By  an  examination  of  the  contents  of  the  Bible, 
and  the  external  history  of  its  origin.  To  proceed 
in  this  way,  we  must  ask ;  Are  all  its  statements 
infallibly  true?  But  to  ask  this  question  presup- 
poses the  standard-measure  is  in  ourselves,  not  in 
the  Bible ;  so  at  the  utmost  the  Book  can  be  no 
more  infallible,  and  have  no  m  )re  authority  than 
Reason  and  the  moral  Sense  by  which  we  try  it. 
A  single  mistake  condemns  its  infallibility,  and  of 
course  its  divinity.  But  the  case  is  still  worse. 
After  the  truth  of  a  book  is  made  out,  before  a  work 
in  human  language  like  other  books,  can  be  referred 


'   See  tills  claim  made  in  the  Koran,  Sales's  translation,  London,  new 
edition,  p.  1G2,  et  seq.  20G,  372,  400,  152,  JScc.  2l'J,  127,  et  al. 


324  BIBLE  A   HUMAN    WORK. 

to  God  as  its  author,  one  of  two  things  must  be 
shown  :  either  That  its  contents  could  not  have 
come  from  man,  and  then  it  follows  by  implication 
that  they  came  from  God,  or  That  at  a  certain 
time  and  place,  God  did  miraculously  reveal  the 
contents  of  the  hook.  Now  it  is  a  notorious  fact, 
first,  that  it  has  not  been,  and  cannot  be  proved, 
that  every  statement  in  the  Bible  is  true,  or,  se- 
condly, that  its  contents,  such  as  they  are,  could 
not  have  proceeded  from  man,  under  the  ordinary  in- 
fluence of  God,  or,  finally,  that  any  one  book  or  word 
of  the  Bible  was  miraculously  revealed  to  man.  In 
the  absence  of  proof  for  any  one  of  these  three 
points,  it  has  been  found  a  more  convenient  way  to 
assume  the  truth  of  them  all,  and  avoid  troublesome 
questions. 

Laying  aside  all  prejudices,  if  we  look  into  the 
Bible  in  a  general  way,  as  into  other  books,  we 
find  facts  which  force  the  conclusion  upon  us,  that 
the  Bible  is  a  human  work,  as  much  as  the  Prin- 
cipia  of  Newton  or  Descartes.  Some  things  are 
beautiful  and  true,  but  others  no  man,  in  his  reason, 
can  accept.  Here  are  the  works  of  various  writers, 
from  the  eleventh  century  before  to  the  second  cen- 
tury after  Christ,  it  may  be,  thrown  capriciously 
together,  and  united  by  no  common  tie  but  the  lids 
of  the  book-binder.  Here  are  two  forms  of  Reli- 
gion, which  differ  widely,  set  forth  and  enforced  by 
miracles  ;  the  one  ritual  and  formal,  the  other  actual 
and  spiritual ;  the  one  the  Religion  of  Fear,  the  other 
of  Love ;  one  finite,  and  resting  entirely  on  the  special 


ITS  CONFLICTING  CONTENTS.  325 

revelation  made  to  Moses,  the  otlier  absolute  and 
based  on  the  universal  revelation  of  God,  ulio  en- 
lightens all  tluit  come  into  the  world  ;  one  offers 
only  earthly  recompense,  the  other  makes  immor- 
tality a  motive  to  a  divine  life  ;  one  compels  men, 
the  other  invites  them.  One  half  the  Bible  repeals 
the  other  half;  the  Gospel  annihilates  the  Law; 
the  apostles  take  the  place  of  the  prophets,  and  go 
higher  up.  If  Christianity  and  Judaism  be  not  the 
same  thing,  there  must  be  hostility  between  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New  Testament,  for  the  Jewish 
form  claims  to  be  eternal.  To  an  unprejudiced  man 
this  hostility  is  very  obvious.  It  may  indeed  be 
said  Christianity  came  not  to  destroy  the  Law  and 
the  Prophets,  but  to  fulfil  them,  and  the  answer  is 
plain,  their  fulfilment  was  their  destruction. 

If  we  look  at  the  Bible  as  a  whole,  we  find  nu- 
merous contradictions  ;  conflicting  histories  which 
no  skill  can  reconcile  with  themselves  or  with  facts  ; 
Poems  which  the  Christians  have  agreed  to  take  as 
histories,  but  which  lead  only  to  confusion  on  that 
hypothesis  ;  Prophecies  that  have  never  been  ful- 
filled, and  from  the  nature  of  things  never  can  be. 
We  find  stories  of  miracles  which  could  not  have 
happened  ;  accounts  which  represent  the  laws  of 
nature  completely  transformed,  as  in  fairy-land,  to 
trust  the  tales  of  the  old  romancers ;  stories  that 
make  God  a  man  of  war,  cruel,  capricious,  revenge- 
ful, hateful,  and  not  to  be  trusted.  We  find  ama- 
tory songs,  selfish  proverbs,  skeptical  discourses,  and 
the    most   awful    imprecations   human   fancy  ever 


326  CONTENTS  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

clothed  in  speech.  Connected  with  these  are  lofty 
thoughts  of  nature,  man  and  God ;  devotion  touch- 
ing and  beautiful,  and  a  most  reverent  faith.  Here 
are  works  Avhose  authors  are  known ;  others  of 
which  the  author,  age  and  country  are  alike  forgot- 
ten. Genuine  and  spurious  works,  religious  and  not 
religious  are  strangely  mixed.  But  the  subject  de- 
mands a  more  minute  and  detailed  examination  in 
each  of  its  main  parts. 


CHAPTER   II. 

AX     EXAMINATION    OF    THE     CLAIMS    OF     THE     OLD    TESTAMENT 
TO  BE  A  DIVINE,  MIRACULOUS,  OR    INFALLIBLE    COMPOSITION. 

It  is  not  possible  to  prove  directly  the  divine  and 
miraculous  character  of  the  Old  Testament  by  show- 
ing that  God  miraculously  revealed  it  to  the  writers 
thereof,  for  ice  do  not  knoiv  who  ivere  the  writers 
of  the  greater  part  of  the  books ;  and  when  the 
authors  are  known,  it  is  only  by  their  own  testi- 
mony, which  we  have  no  ri!2;ht  to  assume  to  be  in- 
fallible. We  have  not  the  faintest  direct  evidence 
to  show  there  was  anything  miraculous  in  their 
composition.  The  indirect  evidence  may  be  re- 
duced to  two  branches,  that  which  shows  that  all 
the  statements  of  the  Old  Testament  are  true,  or  that 
which  shows  it  contains  statements  of  things  above 
human  apprehension.  From  the  nature  of  the  case, 
the  former  proposition  cannot  be  proved,  since  many 
things  treated  of  in  the  Bible  are  known  to  us  by 
that  book  alone.  To  say  they  are  true,  is  to  assume 
the  fact  at  issue.     Besides,  a  true  statement  is  not 


328  BIBLE  NOT  INFALLIBLE. 

necessarily  miraculous ;  if  it  were,  the  multiplica- 
tion table  of  Pythagoras  would  be  a  divine  and 
miraculous  composition.  The  latter  proposition  has 
also  its  difficulty.  How  do  we  know  its  statements 
are  above  human  apprehension  ?  But  suppose  they 
are,  how  do  we  know  they  are  true  ?  These  diffi- 
culties are  insuperable.  To  assume  the  divinity  of 
the  Old  Testament  is  quite  as  absurd  as  to  assume 
the  same  for  the  next  book  that  shall  be  printed ; 
to  declare  it  divine  on  account  of  the  beautiful  piety 
in  some  parts  of  it,  is  foolish  as  to  make  the  same 
claim  for  the  Geometry  of  Euclid  and  the  Poems  of 
Homer,  on  account  of  their  great  excellence  ;  to 
admit  this  claim  because  made  by  some  of  the  Jews, 
is  no  more  wise  than  to  admit  the  claims  of  the 
Zoroastrian  records  and  the  Sibylline  oracles,  and 
the  religious  books  of  all  nations  ;  then,  among  so 
many,  one  is  of  no  value,  for  the  very  excellence  of 
a  miraculous  work  consists  in  the  fact  of  its  being 
the  only  miraculous  work. 

To  leave  these  assumptions  and  come  to  facts,  this 
general  thesis  may  be  laid  down,  and  maintained  : 
Every  book  of  the  Old  Testament  bears  distinct 
marks  of  its  huinan  origin  ;  some  of  human  folly 
and  sin ;  all  of  human  weakness  and  imperfection. 
If  this  thesis  be  true,  the  Bible  is  not  the  direct 
work  of  God  ;  not  the  master  of  Common  Sense, 
Reason,  Conscience,  and  the  religious  Sentiment. 
To  prove  this  proposition,  it  is  necessary  to  go  into 
some  details.  The  Hebrews  divided  their  scrip- 
tures into  the  Law,   the   Prophets,  and  the  Writ- 


OF  THE    LAW.  329 

ings,  to  each  of  which  tliey  assigned  a  pecuHar 
degree  of  inspiration.  Tlic  Law  was  infallibly 
inspired,  God  speaking  with  Moses  face  to  face  ; 
the  Prophets  less  perfectly,  God  addressing  them 
by  visions  and  dreams  ;  the  Writings  still  more 
feebly,  God  communicating  to  th(;ir  authors  by 
figures  and  enigmas.^  This  ancient  division  may 
well  enough  be  followed  in  this  discussion. 


"b" 


I.     Of  the  Law. 

This  comprises  the  first  five  books  of  the  Bible. 
They  are  commonly  ascribed  to  Moses ;  but  there 
is  no  proof  that  he  wrote  a  word  of  them.  Only 
the  Decalogue,  in  a  compendious  form,  and  perhaps 
a  iew  fragments,  can  be  referred  to  him  with  much 
probability.  From  the  use  of  peculiar  words,  from 
local  allusions,  and  other  incidental  signs,  it  is 
plain  here  are  fragments  from  several  dilTerent 
writers,  who  lived  no  one  knows  w  hen  or  where, 
tiieir  names  perfectly  unknown  to  us.  They  all 
bear  marks  of  an  age  much  later  than  that  of  Moses, 
as  any  one  familiar  with  ancient  history,  and  free 
from  j)rejudice,  may  see  on  examination. - 

But  if  they  were  written  by  Moses,  we  are  not, 
on  the  bare  word  of  a  writer,  to  admit  the  miracu- 


•  See  Philo,  De  Monarch.  I.  p.  820.  De  Vita  Mosis,  III.  p.  081.  II. 
p.  656,  et  seq.     Josephus,  cont.  Apion,  I.  8. 

*  The  proofs  of  this  assertion  cannot  be  adduced  in  a  brief  discourse 
hke  the  present;  they  may  be  found  in  tlic  work  announced  in  the 
preface. 

42 


230  ACCOUNTS  IN  THE  LAW 

lous  infallibility  of  his  statements.  Besides,  the 
character  of  the  books  is  such  that  a  very  high 
place  is  not  to  be  assigned  them  among  human 
compositions,  measured  by  the  standard  of  the  pre- 
sent day.  The  first  chapter  of  the  book,  if  taken 
as  a  history,  in  the  unavoidable  sense  of  its  terms, 
is  at  variance  with  facts.  It  relates  that  God  cre- 
ated the  sun,  moon,  stars,  and  earth,  and  gave 
the  latter  its  plants,  animals,  and  men,  in  six  days  ; 
while  science  proves  that  many  thousands,  if  not 
millions,  of  years  must  have  passed  between  the 
creation  of  the  first  plants,  and  man,  the  crown  of 
creation,  that  the  surface  of  the  earth  gradually 
received  its  present  form,  one  race  of  plants  after 
the  other  sprang  up,  animals  succeeded  animals, 
the  simpler  first,  then  the  more  complex,  and  at  last 
came  man.  This  chapter  tells  of  an  ocean  of  water 
above  our  heads,  separated  from  us  by  a  solid  ex- 
panse, in  which  the  greater  and  lesser  lights  are 
fixed ;  that  there  was  evening  and  morning,  before 
there,  was  a  sun  to  cause  the  difference  between 
day  and  night ;  that  the  sun  and  stars  were  cre- 
ated after  the  earth,  for  the  earth's  convenience  ; 
and  that  God  ceased  his  action,  and  rested  on  the 
seventh  day.  Here  the  Bible  is  at  variance  with 
science,  which  is  nature  stated  in  exact  language. 
Few  men  will  say  directly  what  the  schoolmen 
said  to  Galileo,  "  If  Nature  is  opposed  to  the  Bible 
then  Nature  is  mistaken,  for  the  Bible  is  certainly 
right;"  but  the  popular  view  of  the  Bible  logically 
makes  that  assertion.     Truth  and  the  book  of  Gen- 


AT  VARIANCE  WITH  SCIENCE.  331 

esis  cannot  be  reconciled,  except  on  the  hypothesis 
that  the  Bible  means  anvthing:  it  can  be  made  to 
mean/  but  then  it  means  nothing. 

A  similar  decision  must  be  pronounced  upon  nu- 
merous accounts  in  the  Law,  on  the  creation  of 
woman  ;  the  story  of  the  garden,  the  temptation 
and  fall  of  man  ;  the  appearances  of  God  in  human 
shape,  eating  and  drinking  with  his  favorite,  and 
making  covenants;  the  story  of  the  flood,  and  the 
ark ;  the  miraculous  birth  of  Isaac ;  the  promise  to 
the  patriarchs  ;  the  great  age  of  mankind  ;  the 
tower  of  Babel,  and  confusion  of  tongues  ;  the  sac- 
rifice of  Isaac  ;  the  history  of  Joseph  ;  of  Moses ; 
the  ten  plas^ues,  miraculously  sent ;  the  wonderful 
passage  of  the  Red  Sea ;  the  support  of  the  He- 
brews in  the  wilderness  on  manna ;  the  miraculous 
supply  of  food,  water  and  clothing,  and  the  delivery 
of  the  Law  at  Mount  Sinai. ^  On  these  it  is  need- 
less to  dwell.  But  there  is  one  account  in  the 
Law  too  significant  to  be  passed  over.  It  is  briefly 
this.^  As  the  Jews  approached  the  land  of  Canaan, 
Moses  sent  twelve  men,  "  heads  of  the  children  of 
Israel,"  to  examine  the  land  and  report  to  the 
people.  They  spent  a  long  time  in  their  tour,  re- 
ported that  the  land  was  fertile,  exhibited  speci- 
mens of  its  productions,  but  added,  it  was  full  of 


'  See  Augustine,  Confess.  Lib.  XII.  Chap.  18,  et  al. 

*  See  many  valuable  remarks'in  Palfrey,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  II.  p.  1-133. 
His  is,  perhaps,  the  only  book  in  the  English  tongue  which  attempts  to 
look  the  Old  Testament  in  the  face. 

^  Numbers,  XIV. 


332  A  REVENGEFUL  CHARACTER 

warlike  nations.  The  Jews  were  afraid  to  invade 
it ;  "  They  wept  all  night  and  said,  would  God  we 
had  died  in  the  land  of  Egypt."  They  rebelled, 
and  wished  to  choose  a  leader  and  return.  Closes 
and  Aaron,  and  Caleb  and  Joshua — two  of  the 
twelve  messengers  —  urge  them  to  battle,  and  say, 
"  Jehovah  is  with  us."  The  people  refuse,  and 
would  stone  them.  Then  the  glory  of  Jehovah  ap- 
peared before  the  face  of  the  people,  and  God  says 
to  Moses,  "  How  long  will  this  people  provoke  me  ? 
...  I  will  smite  them  with  the  pestilence  and  dis- 
inherit them,  and  make  of  thee  a  greater  nation 
and  mightier  than  they."  But  Moses,  more  merci- 
fid  than  his  God,  attempts  to  appease  the  Deity, 
and  that  by  an  appeal  to  his  vanity.  "  And  Moses 
said  unto  Jehovah,  then  the  Egyptians  shall  hear  of 
it,  and  they. will  tell  it  to  the  inhabitants  of  this 
land.  .  .  .  Now  if  thou  shalt  kill  all  this  people  as 
one  man,  then  the  nations  will  speak,  saying.  Be- 
cause Jehovah  was  not  able  to  bring  this  people 
into  the  land  he  sware  unto  them,  therefore  he  hath 
slain  them."  Then  he  would  soothe  his  Deity. 
"  Pardon  the  iniquity  of  this  people."  "  Jehovah  is 
long  suffering  and  of  great  mercy,  forgiving  iniquity 
and  transgression,  but  by  no  means  clearing  the 
guilty."  Jehovah  consents,  but  adds,  "As  truly  as 
I  live  all  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  glory  of 
Jehovah,"  but  "  because  all  these  men  .  .  .  have 
tempted  me  now  these  ten  times,  .  .  .  surely  they 
shall  not  see  the  land  which  1  sware  unto  their 
fathers,  .  .  .  your  carcasses  shall  fall  in  this  wil- 


ASCRIBED  TO  GOD.  333 

deniess,  ...  in  tliis  wilderness  they  sliall  be  con- 
sumed, and  there  they  shall  die." 

If  an  unprejudiced  Christian  were  to  read  this  for 
the  first  time  in  a  heathen  writer,  and  it  was  relat- 
ed of  Kronos  or  Moloch,  he  would  say.  What  Ibul 
ideas  these  heathens  had  of  God  ;  thank  Heaveu 
we  are  Christians,  and  cannot  believe  in  a  deity  so 
terrible.  It  is  true  there  are  now  pious  men,  who 
believe  the  story  to  the  letter,  ])rofess  to  find  com- 
fort therein,  and  count  it  part  of  their  Christianity 
to  believe  it.  But  is  God  angry  with  men ;  pas- 
sionate, revengeful  ;  offended  because  they  will  not 
war  and  butcher  the  innocent  ?  Would  he  violate 
his  perfect  law  and  by  a  miracle  destroy  a  whole 
nation,  millions  of  men,  women  and  children,  be- 
cause they  fall  into  a  natural  fit  of  despair,  and 
refuse  to  trust  ten  witnesses  rather  than  two  wit- 
nesses ?  Does  God  require  man's  words  to  restrain 
His  rage,  violence,  and  a  degree  of  fury  which 
Nero  and  Caracalla  —  butchers  of  men  though  they 
were  —  would  have  shuddered  to  think  of?  Is  He 
to  be  teazed  and  coaxed  from  murder  ?  Are  we 
called  on  to  believe  this  in  the  name  of  Christian- 
ity ?  Then  perish  Christianity  from  the  face  of 
earth,  and  let  man  learn  of  his  Religion  and  his 
God,  from  the  stars  and  the  violet,  the  lion  and  the 
lamb.  View  this  as  the  savage  story  of  some 
oriental  who  attributed  a  blood-thirsty  character  to 
his  God,  and  made  a  Deity  in  his  own  image,  and 
it  is  a  striking  remnant  of  barbarism  that  has  passed 
aw  ay,  not  destitute  of  dramatic  interest ;  not  with- 


334  THE  EARLY  PROPHETS. 

out  its  melancholy  moral.  There  are  some  things 
which  may  be  true,  but  must  be  rejected  for  lack  of 
evidence  to  prove  them  true ;  but  this  story  no 
amount  of  evidence  could  make  possible. 

Throughout  the  whole  of  the  Law,  fact  and  fic- 
tion, history  and  mythology,  are  so  intimately 
blended,  that  it  seems  impossible  to  tell  where  one 
begins  and  the  other  ends.  The  laws  are  not 
perfect ;  they  contain  a  mingling  of  good  and  bad, 
wise  and  absurd,  and  if  men  will  maintain  that  God 
is  their  author,  we  must  still  apply  to  them  the 
words  which  Ezekiel  puts  in  his  mouth  :  ^  "  I  gave 
them  statutes  that  were  not  good,  and  judgments 
whereby  they  should  not  live  ;  "  or  say  with  Jere- 
miah, "  1  spake  not  unto  your  fathers  in  the  day 
that  I  brought  them  up  out  of  Egypt,  concerning 
burnt-offerings,  or  sacrifices." 

II.   Of  the  Prophets. 

The  Hebrews  divide  the  prophets  into  the  earlier 
and  the  later :  the  first  including  the  four  historical 
works  of  Joshua,  Judges,  Samuel  and  the  Kings, 
the  second,  the  prophets  properly  so  called,  with 
the  exception  of  Daniel,  the  three  major,  the  twelve 
minor  prophets. 

1 .  Of  the  Early  Prophets. 

No  one  knows  the  date  or  the  author  of  any  one 
of  these  books  ;  they  all  contain  historical  matter 

»  Ezekiel,  Ch.  XX.  25,  Jer.  VII.  22. 


THE  EARLY  PROPHETS.  335 

of  doubtful  character,  such  as  the  miraculous  pas- 
sage of  the  Jordan  ;  the  destruction  of  Jericho ;  the 
standing  still  of  the  sun  and  moon  at  the  command 
of  Joshua  ;  the  story  of  Samson  ;  the  destruction 
of  the  Bf  ujamites  ;  the  birth  and  calling  of  Samuel ; 
the  wonders  wrought  by  the  Ark ;  the  story  of  Saul, 
David  and  Goliah,  the  miraculous  pestilence,  of  Solo- 
mon, Elijah,  Elisha  and  others.  Of  all  these,  per- 
haps the  story  of  Samson  is  the  most  strikingly 
absurd.  A  man  of  miraculous  birth  and  miraculous 
strength,  whose  ability  lay  in  his  long  hair  and 
which  went  from  him  when  his  locks  were  shorn 
off.  When  we  read  in  Hesiod  and  elsewhere,  the 
birth  and  exploits  of  Hercules,  —  who  bears  a  re- 
semblance to  Samson  in  some  respects,  though 
vastly  his  superior  on  the  whole  —  we  refer  the  tale 
to  human  fancy  in  a  low  stage  of  civilization  ;  a 
mind  free  from  prejudice  will  do  the  same  with  the. 
story  of  Samson.^  No  one  will  contend  that  it 
requires  a  mind  miraculously  enlightened  to  pro- 
duce such  books  as  these  of  the  early  prophets. 
They  belong  to  the  fabulous  period  of  Jewish 
history.  Mythology,  poetry,  fact  and  fiction,  are 
strangely  woven  together.  The  authors,  whoever 
they  were,  claim  no  inspiration.  However,  as  a 
general  rule,  they  contain  less  to  offend  a  religious 
mind  than  the  books  of  the  Law. 


'  See  Palfrey,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  II.  p.  194,  et  seq.,  and  on  these  books  in 
general,  p.  134-300.     Home,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  II.  p.  21G,  et  seq. 


336  IKSPIRATION  OF  THE  PROPHETS. 


2.   The  Prophets,  pro])e7iy  so  called. 

It  may  be  said  of  these  writings,  in  general,  that 
they  contain  nothing  above  the  reach  of  human 
facuhies.  Here  are  noble  and  sjDmt-stirring  appeals 
to  men's  conscience,  patriotism,  honor  and  religion  ; 
beautiful  poetic  descriptions,  odes,  hymns,  expres- 
sions of  faith,  almost  beyond  praise.  But  the  mark 
of  human  infirmity  is  on  them  all,  and  proofs  or 
signs  of  miraculous  inspiration  are  not  found  in 
them.  In  the  minor  prophets,  there  is  nothing  wor- 
thy of  special  notice  in  this  place,  unless  it  be  the 
story  of  Jonah,  which  is  unique  in  the  ancient  He- 
brew literature,  and  tells  its  own  tale.  These  books 
do  not  require  a  detailed  examination.^  The  greater 
prophets,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel,  are  more 
important,  and  require  a  more  minute  notice.  In 
these,  as  well  as  in  other  prophetical  books,  and 
the  Law,  claim  is  apparently  made  to  miraculous 
inspiration.  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah,"  is  the  author- 
ity to  which  the  prophet  appeals,  "  Jehovah  said 
unto  me,"  "  The  command  of  Jehovah  came  unto 
me,"  "  I  saw  in  a  vision,"  "  The  spirit  of  Jehovah 
came  upon  me."  These  and  similar  expressions  oc- 
cur often  in  the  prophets.  But  do  these  phrases 
denote  a  claim  to  miraculous  inspiration  as  we  un- 
derstand it  ?  We  limit  miraculous  inspiration  to  a 
few  cases,  where  something  is  to  be  done  above 

'  For  this,  see  the  work  referred  to  in  the  preface,  and  Palfrey,  ubi 
sup.  Vol.  II.  p.  362,  et  seq. 


LANGUAGE  OF  THK  PROPHETS.         337 

human  ability.     Not  so  the  Hebrews ;  they  did  not 
make  a  sharp  distinction  between  the  miraculous  and 
the  common.     All  religious  and  moral  power  was 
regarded  as  the  direct  gift  of  God ;  an  outpouring 
of  his  spirit.     God  teaches  David  to  fight ;  com- 
mands Gideon  to  select  his  soldiers,  to  arise  in  the 
night  and  attack  the  foe.     The  Lord  set  his  ene- 
mies  to  fight   amongst   themselves.     He    teaches 
Bezalcel  and  Aholiab.    They,  and  all  the  ingenious 
mechanics,  are   filled   with   "  the   spirit  of  God." 
The  same  «  spirit  of  the  Lord  "  enables  Samson 
to  kill  a  lion,  and   many  men.     These   instances 
show  with  what  latitude  the  phrase  is  used,  and 
how  loose  were  the  notions  of  inspiration.^     The 
Greeks  also  referred  their  works  to  the  aid  of  Phoe- 
bus, Pallas,  Minerva,  Vulcan,  or  Olympian  Jove,  in 
the  same  way.     It  has  never  been  rendered  pro- 
bable that  the  phrase.  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  and  its 
kindred  terms,  were  understood  by  the  prophets  or 
their  hearers  to  denote  any  miraculous  agency  in 
the  case.    They  employ  language  with  the  greatest 
freedom.     Thus  a  waiter  says,     "  I  saw  Jehovah 
sitting  upon  a  throne,  high  and  lifted  up,  and  his 
train  filled  the  temple;    above   it  stood  the  sera- 
phim."     No    thinking    man    would    suppose    the 
prophet  designed  to  assert  a  fact,  or  that  his  coun- 
trymen understood  him  to  do  so.     Certainly  it  is 
insulting  to  suppose  a  Christian  would  believe  God 


See  Glassius   Philologia  sacra  ed.   Dathc,  Vol.   !I,  p.  81.5,  et  scq. 
Bauer  Theologie  des  A.  I.  §  51-54,  et  al. 
43 


338  PREDICTIONS  NOT  COMMON. 

sat  on  a  throne,  with  a  troop  of  courtiers  around 
him,  like  a  Persian  king.  When  a  prophet  says 
Jehovah  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream,  he  can  only 
mean,  either  he  dreamed  Jehovah  appeared,  which 
is  somewhat  different,  or  that  he  chose  this  sym- 
bolical way  of  stating  his  opinion.  Thus  a  Grecian 
prophet  might  say,  "  The  Muse  came  down  from 
high  Olympus'  shaggy  top,  and  whispered  unto  me, 
her  favorite  son."^  Not  stating  a  fact,  he  would 
give  an  outness  to  what  passed  in  his  mind.  How- 
ever, if  these  writers  claimed  miraculous  inspiration 
ever  so  strongly,  we  are  not  to  grant  it  unless  they 
abide  the  test  mentioned  above. 

If  they  utter  predictions  —  which  they  rarely  at- 
tempt —  we  are  not  to  assume  their  fulfihuent,  and 
then  conclude  the  prophet  was  miraculously  inspired, 
common  as  the  method  is.  But  what  is  the  value  of 
the  claim  made  for  them  ?  Has  any  one  of  them  ever 
uttered  a  distinct,  definite  and  unambiguous  predic- 
tion of  any  future  event  that  has  since  taken  place, 
which  a  man  without  a  miracle  could  not  equally 
well  predict  ?  It  has  never  been  shown.  Most  of 
the  prophetic  writings  relate  to  the  past  and  the 
present ;  to  the  political,  civil  and  moral  condition 
of  the  people,  at  the  time  ;  they  exhort  backsliding 
Israel  to  forsake  his  idols,  return  to  Jehovah,  live 
wisely  and  well.  They  state  the  result  of  obedi- 
ence or  of  disobeying  for  individuals  and  the  nation. 
It   is   rare   they   predict    distinctly    and    definitely 

'  See  Cicero  De  Nat.  Deoruin,  Lib.  I.  Ch.  I.  and  II.     Ovid,  Meta- 
inorph.  Lib.  II.  G40,  et  seq. 


PREDICTION   OF  THE  EXILE.  339 

any  specific  event ;  sometimes  they  declare,  in  the 
most  general  terms,  good  or  ill  I'ortune,  the  destruc- 
tion of  a  city,  the  defeat  of  an  army,  the  downfall 
of  a  king.  But  in  case  the  prediction  came  to 
pass,  who  shall  tell  us,  at  this  distance  of  time,  that 
it  was  not  either  a  lucky  hit,  or  the  result  of  saga- 
cious insight?  Certainly  the  supposition  is  against 
a  miracle.  The  Tripod  of  Delphi  delivered  some 
oracles  that  were  extraordinarily  felicitous;  Seneca 
made  a  very  clear  prediction  of  the  discovery  of 
America,  and  Lactantius  of  the  rise  and  downfall 
of  Napoleon,  and  Lotichius  of  the  capture  of  Mag- 
deburg. Does  the  fulfilment  prove  the  miraculous 
inspiration  of  the  oracle  in  these  cases  ?^    ~ 

But  to  recur  to  the  other  test,  there  are  state- 
ments in  the  prophets  which  are  not  true  ;  predic- 
tions that  did  not  come  to  pass.  Under  this  rubric, 
may  be  placed  three  of  the  most  celebrated  predic- 
tions in  the  Old  Testament. 

1.  Jeremiah's  Prediction  of  the  Seventy  Years  of 

Exile. 

It  was  an  easy  thing  in  Jeremiah's  position  to  see 
that  the  little  nation  of  Judea  could  not  hold  out 
against  the  Babylonian  forces,  and  therefore  must 
experience  the  common  fate  of  nations  they  con- 
quered,   and   be    carried    into  exile.-     But   would 

'  See  the  work  announced  in  the  preface. 

*  On  this  custom  of  the  Chaldees,  see  Heeren,  Ideen,  Vol.  I.  Gesenius 
On  Isa.  XXXVI.  16. 


340  ORACLE  AGAINST  TYRE. 

the  Lord  forsake  his  people  ;  the  seed  of  Abra- 
ham ?  A  pious  Jew  could  not  believe  it.  It  was 
unavoidable,  with  the  common  opinion  of  his  coun- 
trymen, that  he  should  expect  their  subsequent 
restoration.  But  why  predict  an  exile  of  just 
seventy  years,  unless  miraculously  directed  ?  ^  He 
may  have  used  that  term  for  an  indefinite  period ; 
a  common  practice.  In  that  case  there  is  no  mir- 
acle. But  on  the  other  hand,  if  he  predicted  an 
exile  of  just  seventy  years,  the  oracle  w^as  a  failure. 
The  people  were  not  carried  into  captivity  all  at 
once.  From  which  of  the  two  or  three  times  of 
deportation  shall  we  set  out  ?  The  books  of  Kings 
and  Chronicles  differ  somewhat.^  But  to  take  the 
chronology  of  Jeremiah  himself,  if  the  passage  be 
genuine  f  the  exile  began  in  the  seventh  year  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  599  before  Christ ;  it  was  con- 
tinued in  the  year  588,  and  concluded  in  583. 
The  exile  ended  in  the  year  536.  The  longest 
period  that  can  be  made  out  extends  to  but  sixty- 
three,  and  the  shortest  to  but  forty-seven  years. 
To  make  out  the  seventy  years  we  must  date  arbi- 
trarily from  the  year  606. 

2.  EzekiePs  Oracle  against  Tyre. 

This  prophet  predicts  that  Nebuchadnezzar  shall 
destroy  Tyre.''     The  prediction  is  clear  and  dis- 

1  Jer.  XXV. 

'•i  See  2  Kings,  XXIV.  XXV.     2  Chron.  XXXVI. 
3  Jer.  LII.  28  -  30 ;  but  see  verses  4-15.     See  the  forced  combinations 
in  Jahn's  Hebrew  Commonwealth,  Ch.  V.  §  43. 
*  XXVI.  l,et  seq. 


ORACLF.   ACIAINST  'I'YRK.  3U 

tinct ;  the  destruction  is  to  be  complete  and  total. 
"  With  the  hoofs  of  liis  horses  shall  he  tread  down 
all  thy  streets  ;  he  shall  slay  thy  people  by  the 
sword,  and  thy  strong  garrison  shall  go  down  to 
the  ground. .  .  1  "will  make  thee  like  the  top  of  a 
rock ;  thou  shalt  be  to  spread  nets  upon  ;  thou 
shalt  be  built  up  no  more."  But  it  was  not  so. 
Nebuchadnezzar  w^as  obliged  to  raise  the  siege 
after  investing  the  city  for  thirteen  years,  and  go 
and  fight  the  Egyptians.  Then  sixteen  years 
after  the  first  oracle,  Ezekiel  takes  back  his  own 
words.  "  The  word  of  the  Lord  came  unto  me, 
saying,  Son  of  man,  Nebuchadnezzar  .  .  caused  his 
army  to  serve  a  great  service  against  Tyrus  ;  every 
head  was  made  bald,"  with  the  chafing  of  the 
helmet,  "  every  shoulder  was  peeled,"  with  the 
pressure  of  burthens  ;  "  yet  he  had  no  wages,  nor  his 
army  from  Tyrus.  . .  .  Therefore,  behold,  I  will  give 
the  land  of  Egypt  unto  Nebuchadnezzar."  ^ 

These  things  speak  for  themselves,  and  show  the 
nature  of  the  prophetic  discourses  ;  that  they  were 
moral  addresses,  or  poetical  odes.  Ezekiel's  cele- 
brated prediction  of  an  impossible  city,^  is  a  stand- 
ing monument  of  the  prophetic  character,  and  of  the 
lasting  folly  of  interpreters.  It  were  easy  to  collect 
other  instances  of  palpable  mistake.^ 


'  XXIX.  17,  et  seq.  See  Isaiah,  XXIII.  and  Gesenius's  remarks,  in 
his  Coramentar.  Vol.  I.  p.  711,  et  scq.  RosenmOller,  Alterth.  Vol.  II. 
Pt.  I.  p.  34. 

"^  Ch.  XL.-XLVIII. 

^  On   the   Prophecies   in   general,  see   the   Essay  of  Prof.   Sluarl,  in 


342  MESSIANIC  PROPHECIES. 


3.  The  alleged  Predictions  of  Jesus  as  the  Messiah. 

The  Messianic  prophecies  are  the  most  famous 
of  all.  It  is  commonly  pretended  that  there  are  in 
the  Old  Testament  clear  and  distinct  predictions  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  But  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say, 
it  has  never  been  shown  that  there  is,  in  the  whole 
of  the  Old  Testament,  one  single  sentence  that  in 
the  plain  and  natural  sense  of  the  words  foretells 
the  birth,  life,  or  death  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  If 
the  Scriptures  have  seventy-two  senses,  as  one  of 
the  Rabbins  declares,  or  if  it  foretells  whatever 
comes  to  pass,  as  Augustine,  and  means  all  it 
can  be  made  to  mean,  as  many  moderns  seem  to 
think,  why  predictions  and  types  of  Jesus  may  be 
found  in  the. first  chapter  of  Genesis,  in  Noah  and 
Abraham  and  Samson,  as  well  as  in  Virgil's  fourth 
Eclogue,  the  Odes  of  Horace,  and  the  story  of  the 
Trihemerine  Hercules. 

The  Messianic  expectations  and  prophecies  seem 
to  have  originated  in  this  way :  After  the  happy 
and  successful  period  of  David  and  Solomon,  the 
kingdom  was  divided  into  Judah  and  Israel,  the  two 
tribes  and  the  ten,  the  national  prosperity  declined. 
Pious  men  hoped  for  better  times  ;  they  naturally 
connected  these  hopes  with  a  personal  deliverer  ;  a 
descendant  of  David,  their  most  popular  king.    The 

Bib.  Rep.  Vol.  II.  p.  217,  et  seq.  of  Hengstenberg,  ibid.  p.  139,  et  seq. 
See  also  the  able  Essay  of  Knobel  Prophetismus  der  Hebraer,  Vol.  I. 
Einleit. 


.* 


MESSIANIC   PROPHECIES.  343 

deliverer  would  unite  the  two  kingdoms  under  the 
old  form.  A  poetic  fancy  endowed  him  with  won- 
derful powers ;  made  liim  a  model  of  goodness. 
Different  poets  arrayed  their  expected  hero  in 
imaginary  drapery  to  suit  their  own  conceptions. 
Malachi  gives  him  a  forerunner.  The  Jews  were 
the  devoutest  of  nations  ;  the  popular  deliverer 
must  be  a  religious  man.  They  were  full  of  pious 
faith ;  so  the  darker  the  present,  the  brighter 
shone  the  Pharos  of  Hope  in  the  future.  Some- 
times this  deliverer  was  called  the  Messiah  ;  this 
term  is  not  common  in  the  Old  Testament,  how- 
ever, but  is  sometimes  applied  to  Cyrus  by  the 
Pseudo-Isaiah.^ 

These  hopes  and  predictions  of  a  deliverer  in- 
volved several  important  things  :  A  reunion  of  the 
divided  tribes  ;  a  return  of  the  exiles ;  the  triumph 
and  extension  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  its  eternal 
duration  and  perfect  happiness  ;  idolatry  was  to  be 
rooted  out ;  the  nations  improved  in  morals  and 
religion  ;  Truth  and  Righteousness  were  to  reign  ; 
Jehovah  to  be  reconciled  with  his  people ;  all  of 
them  w  ere  to  be  taught  of  God  ;  other  nations  were 
to  come  up  to  Jerusalem,  and  be  blessed.  But  the 
Mosaic  Law  was  to  be  eternal ;  the  old  ritual  to 
last  forever ;  Jerusalem  to  be  the  capital  of  the 
Messianic  kingdom,  and  the  Jewish  nation  to  be 
reestablished  in   greater  pomp  than  in  the  times  of 

'  Many  chapters  of  Isaiah  have  been  shown  to  be  spurious.  Tlie  pas- 
sages, Chap.  XLI.-LXVI.;  XIII.-XIV.  ;  XXIII.-XXVII.;  XXXIV. 
XXXV.,  are  of  this  character. 


344  MESSIANIC  PROPHECIES. 

David.     Are  these  predictions  of  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth ?    He  was  not  the  Messiah  of  Jewish  expecta- 
tion ;    of  the   prophets'   foretelling.     The   farthest 
from  it  possible.     The  predictions  demanded  a  po- 
litical and  visible  kingdom  in  Palestine,  with  Jeru- 
salem for  its  capital,   and  its  ritual  the  old   Law. 
The  Kingdom  of  Jesus  is  not  of  this  world.     The 
ten  tribes  —  have  they  come  back  to  the  home  of 
their  fathers  ?    They  have   perished  and  are  swal- 
lowed up  in  the  tide  of  the  nations,  no  one  know- 
ing the  place  of  their  burial.     The  kingdom  of  the 
two  tribes  soon  went  to  the   ground.     These  are 
notorious  facts.     The  Jews  are  right  when  they 
say,   their  predicted  Messiah  has  not  come.     Does 
the  Old  Testament  foretell  a  suffering  Saviour,  his 
kingdom  not  of  this  world  ;  crucified  ;    raised  from 
the    dead  f    The  idea  is  foreign   to  the    Hebrew 
Scriptures.     Well  might  a  Jew  ask,  "  Wilt  thou  at 
this  time  restore  the  kingdom  to  Israel  ?  "  To  trust 
the  uncertain  record  of  the  New  Testament,  Jesus 
was  slow  to  accept  the  name  of  the   Messiah  ;  he 
knew  the   "  people  would  take  him  by  force  and 
make  him  a  king."    But  what  means  the  triumphal 
entry  into  Jerusalem  ?    He  forbids   his  disciples  to 
speak  of  his  Messiahship :   "  See  that  thou  tell  no 
man  of  it ;"  only  proclaims  it  at  Samaria  ;  lets  John 
draw  his  own  inference,  whether  or  not  he  must 
"  look  for  another  ;"  thinks  Simon  Peter  could  only 
find  it  out  by  inspiration.    Was  it  not  that  he  knew 
he  was  not  the  Messiah  of  the  prophets,  so  never 
formally  assumed  the  title  ;  but,  knowing  that  he 


Till".   WRITINGS.  345 

was  the  true  and  only  dclivcror,  a  thousand  times 
greater  than  tlieir  impossible  Messiah,  suffered  the 
name  to  be  affixed  to  him,  and  made  the  most  of 
the  popuhir  Idea  ?  Or,  was  he  himself  mistaken  ? 
It  concerns  us  little  ;  but  this  remains,  that  he  was 
much  more  than  the  Jews  looked  for.  The  Jewish 
Christians  mistook  the  matter ;  Paul  would  prove 
that  he  was  the  Messiah  of  the  prophets.  Mistakes 
in  Theology,  like  bits  of  glass  in  a  kaleidoscope, 
are  repeated  again  and  again,  in  fantastic  combina- 
tions.^ 


III.   The  Writings. 

Under  this  head  are  comprised  the  remaining 
books  of  the  Old  Testament.  Here  is  the  dra- 
matic poem  of  Job,  a  work  of  surprising  beauty, 
and  full  of  truth.  But  its  author  denies  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  and  though  he  attempts  "  to 
justify  the  ways  of  God  to  man,"  he  yet  leaves  the 
question  undecided  as  he  found  it.  In  the  Psalms 
we  have  beautiful  prayers,  mixed  up  with  their 
local  occasions  ;  penitential  hymns,  songs  of  praise, 
expressions  of  hope,  faith,  trust  in  God,  that  have 
never  been  surpassed.  The  devotion  of  some  of 
these  sweet  lyrics  is  beyond  praise.     But  at  the 

'  See  De  Wette,  Dogmatik,  §137-142.  Opuscula,  I.  p.  23-31.  The 
numerous  Christologies  of  modern  times,  and  the  Introductions  to  the 
Old  Testament.  See  also  Strauss.  Leben  Jesu.  §  60-68.  Hcnnell,  ubi 
sup.  Chap.  I  -II.  and  XII. -XIII.  See  also  Bretschneider,  Dogmatik, 
§30,  34,  (p.  356,  ctseq.)  §137,  (p.  166,  et  scq  )  Hahn,  Knapp,  Hase, 
VVegBcheider,  &.c.,  and  Hengstenberg's  Christology. 
44 


346  THE   WRITIJNGS. 

same  time  here  are  the  most  awful  denunciations 
that  speech  ever  spoke.  In  the  following  passage 
the  writer  denounces  his  enemies.^  "  Set  thou  a 
wicked  man  over  him.  Let  Satan  stand  at  his 
right  hand  ;  when  he  shall  be  judged,  let  him  be 
condemned,  and  let  his  prayer  become  sin.  Let 
his  days  be  few  ;  let  another  take  his  office.  Let 
his  children  be  fatherless,  and  his  wife  a  widow. 
Let  his  children  be  continually  vagabonds  and  beg. 
.  .  .  Let  there  be  none  to  extend  mercy  unto  him, 
neither  let  there  be  any  to  favor  his  fatherless 
children."  These  are  the  words  of  a  man  angry 
and  revengeful.  The  Psalms  abound  with  similar 
imprecations.  To  maintain  they  came  directly  from 
the  God  of  love  is  to  forget  Reason,  Conscience, 
and  Religion,  which  teach  us  to  love  our  enemies, 
to  pray  for  them  that  persecute  us.  The  book  of 
Proverbs  and  the  Song  of  Songs  speak  for  them- 
selves, and  neither  need  nor  claim  any  more  inspi- 
ration than  other  collections  of  Proverbs  or  Oriental 
amatory  Idyls.  The  latter  belongs  to  the  same 
class  with  the  writings  of  Anacreon.  The  some- 
what doubtful  book  of  Ecclesiastes  seems  to  be  the 
work  of  a  skeptic.  He  denies  the  immortality  of  the 
soul  with  great  clearness ;  thinks  wisdom  and  folly 
are  alike  vanity.  Though  he  concludes  most  touch- 
iugly  in  praise  of  virtue  on  the  whole,  and  declares 
the  fear  of  God,  and  keeping  his  commandments  is 
the  whole  of  man,  yet  this  conclusion  is  vitiated 

'  Ps.  CIX.  6,  et  seq.     See  also  Ps,  CXXXVII. 


.* 


THR   BOOK  OF   DANIEL.  347 

by  the  former  precept,  "  Be  not  righteous  over 
much."  The  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah  have  as 
little  claim  to  inspiration.' 

Tlie  historical  books  of  this  division  present  some 
peculiarities.  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  are  valuable 
historical  documents,  though  imj)licit  faith  is  by  no 
means  to  be  placed  in  them.  The  book  of  Esther 
is  entirely  devoid  of  religious  interest,  and  seems  to 
be  a  romance  designed  to  show  that  the  Jews  will 
always  be  provided  for.  The  brief  book  of  Ruth 
may  be  an  historical  or  a  fictitious  work. 

The  book  of  Daniel  is  a  perfect  unique  in  the 
Old  Testament.  It  professes  to  have  been  written 
by  a  captive  Jew,  at  Babylon,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  sixth  century  before  Christ ;  it  contains  ac- 
counts of  surprising  miracles,  dreams,  visions,  men 
cast  into  a  den  of  lions  and  a  furnace  of  fire,  yet 
escaping  unhurt ;  a  man  transformed  to  a  beast, 
and  eating  grass  like  an  ox  for  some  years,  and  then 
restored  to  human  shape  ;  a  miraculous  and  spec- 
tral hand-writing  on  the  palace  wall  ;  grotesque 
fancies  that  remind  us  of  the  Arabian  Nights,  and 
the  Talmud.  To  judge  from  internal  evidence,  it 
was  written  in  the  first  part  of  the  second  century, 
perhaps  about  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  years 
before  Christ,  in  the  time  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes. 
The  author  seems  to  have  a  political  and  moral  end 
in  view,  and  to  write  for  the  encouragement  of  his 

'  See  Leclerc's  Five  Letters  concerning  the  Inspiration,  &c.,  Lond. 
1G90,  and  on  the  other  hand,  William  Lowth's  vindication  of  tlie  Divine 
Authority,  &c.  Lond.  1G99,  and  Gaussen  and  Home,  ubi  sup. 


348  THE  CHRONICLES. 

countrymen,  perhaps  designing  his  work  shoukl 
pass  for  what  it  is,  a  politico-religious  romance.^ 

All  of  the  books  hitherto  mentioned  seem  written 
by  earnest  men,  with  no  intention  to  deceive. 
Their  manly  honesty  is  everywhere  apparent.  But 
the  book  of  Chronicles  is  of  a  very  different  character. 
Here  is  an  obvious  attempt  on  the  writer's  part  to 
exalt  the  character  of  orthodox  kings,  and  depress 
that  of  heretical  kings  ;  to  bring  forward  the  Priests 
and  the  Levites,  and  give  every  thing  a  ceremonial 
appearance.  This  design  will  be  obvious  to  any  one 
who  reads  the  stories  in  Chronicles,  and  then  turns 
to  the  parallel  passages  in  Samuel  and  Kings.^  To 
take  but  a  single  instance  ;  the  writer  of  the  book 
of  Samuel  gives  an  account  of  David  ;  tells  of  his 
good  and  evil  qualities  ;  does  not  pass  over  his 
cruelty,  nor  extenuate  his  sin.  But  in  Chronicles 
there  is  not  a  word  of  this  ;  nothing  of  the  crime 
of  imperial  adultery  ;  nothing  of  Nathan's  rousing 
apologue,  and  Thou-art-the-man.  The  thing  speaks 
for  itself. 

Now  if  these  books  have  any  divine  authority, 
what  shall  we  do  with  such  contradictions  ;  deny 
the  fact  ?  We  hve  too  long  after  Dr.  Faustus  for 
so  easy  a  device.  Shall  we  say,  with  a  modern 
divine.  The  true  believer  will  accept  both  state- 
ments with  the  same  implicit  faith  ?  This  also 
may  be  doubtful. 

•  See  the  work  announced  in  the  preface,  Vol.  II.  §  253,  et  seq. 
'  The  passages   are  conveniently  arranged  for  this  purpose,  side  by 
side,  in  Jahn's  edition  of  the  Hebrew  Bible. 


MYTHOLOGY  IN  THE  BIBLE.  349 

To  look  back  upon  the  iicld  we  have  passed,  it 
must  be  confessed  that  the  claims  made  for  the  Old 
Testament  have  no  foundation  in  fact ;  its  books, 
like  others,  have  a  mingling  of  good  and  evil.  We 
see  a  gradual  progress  of  idi^as  therein,  keeping  pace 
with  the  civilization  of  the  world.  Vestiges  of 
ignorance,  superstition,  foil  j,  of  unreclaimed  selfish- 
ness, yet  linger  there.  Fact  and  fiction  are  strangely 
blended ;  the  common  and  miraculous,  the  divine 
and  the  human  run  into  one  another.  We  find 
rude  notions  of  God  in  some  parts,  though  in  others 
the  most  lofty.  Here,  the  moral  and  religious  senti- 
ment are  insulted  ;  there,  is  beautiful  instruction  for 
both.  Human  imperfections  meet  us  everywhere 
in  the  Old  Testament.  The  passions  of  man  are 
ascribed  to  God.  The  Jews  had  a  mythology  as 
well  as  the  Greeks.  They  transform  law  into  mir- 
acles ;  earth  into  a  dream-land  ;  it  rains  manna 
for  eight  and  thirty  years,  and  the  smitten  rock 
pours  out  water.  We  see  a  gradual  progress  in 
this  as  in  all  mythologies.  First,  God  appears  in 
person;  walks  in  the  garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day; 
eats  and  drinks  ;  makes  contracts  with  his  fav'orites  ; 
is  angry,  resentful,  sudden  and  quick  in  quarrel,  and 
changes  his  plans,  at  the  advice  of  a  cool  man. 
Then  it  is  the  angel  of  God  who  appears  to  man. 
It  is  deemed  fatal  for  man  to  see  Jehovah.  His 
messenger  comes  to  Manoah,  and  vanishes  in  the 
flame  of  the  sacrifice  ;  the  angel  of  Jehovah  appears 
to  David.  Next  it  is  only  in  dreams,  visions,  types, 
and  symbols  that  the  Most  High  approaches  his 


350  PROGRESS  OF  IDEAS. 

children.  He  speaks  to  them  by  night ;  comes  in 
the  rush  of  thoughts,  but  is  not  seen.  The  per- 
sonal Form,  and  the  visible  Angel,  have  faded  and 
disappeared  as  the  daylight  assumed  its  power. 
The  nation  advanced  ;  its  Religion  and  mythology 
advanced  with  it.  Then  again,  sometimes  God  is 
represented  as  but  a  local  deity  ;  Jacob  is  surprised 
to  find  Him  in  a  foreign  land  ;  next  he  is  only  the 
God  of  the  Hebrews.  At  last,  the  only  living 
AND  TRUE  God.  There  is  a  similar  progress  in  the 
notions  of  the  service  God  demands.  Abraham 
must  offer  Isaac  ;  with  Moses,  slain  beasts  are  suffi- 
cient ;  Micah  has  outgrown  the  Mosaic  form  in 
some  respects,  and  says,  "  Shall  Jehovah  be  pleased 
with  thousands  of  rams ;  shall  I  give  the  first-born 
of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul  ?  What  doth 
Jehovah  requirfi  of  thee,  but  to  do  Justly  and  to  love 
mercy  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God?"  A 
spiritual  man  in  the  midst  of  a  formal  people  saw 
the  pure  truth  which  they  saw  not.  Does  the  Old 
Testament  claim  to  be  master  of  the  soul  ?  By  no 
means ;  it  is  only  a  phantom  conjured  up  by  super- 
stition that  scares  us  in  our  sleep.  Does  the  truth 
it  contains  make  it  a  miraculous  book  ?  It  is  poor 
logic  which  thinks  what  is  false  can  cease  to  be 
false,  though  never  so  many  wonders  are  wrought  in 
its  defence.^ 

'  On  the  Old  Testament,  its  authors'  inspiration,  &c.  see  some  valua- 
ble remarks  in  Spinoza,  Tract,  theol.  polit.  Ch.  I.-X.  XII.-XIII. 


CHAPTER    III. 


AN    EXAMINATION    OF    THE    CLAIMS    OF    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT 
TO    BE  A  DIVINE,   MIRACULOUS,  OR  INFALLIBLE    COMPOSITION. 

Let  us  look  the  facts  of  the  New  Testament 
also  in  the  face.  Some  men  are  glad  to  abandon 
the  Old  Testament  to  the  Jews,  but  fear  to  look 
into  the  foundation  of  the  Christian  Scriptures,  lest 
it  be  found  sandy.  Does  much  depend  on  the 
New  Testament?  Then  the  more  carefully  must 
its  claims  be  examined.  Truth  courts  the  light, 
its  deeds  never  evil.  Are  the  writings  of  the  New 
Testament  divine,  miraculous,  and  infallible  com- 
positions;  if  the  Old  Testament  fail  —  the  only 
infallible  rule  of  religious  faith  and  practice?  Such 
is  the  prevalent  opinion  with  us.^  After  what  was 
said  above  respecting  the  points  to  be  proved  before 
such  a  conchision  could  be  admitted,  it  becomes 
less  difficult  to  decide  this  question.  The  general 
remarks  respecting  the  inspiration  of  the  Old  Tes- 

'  See  Faustus  Socinus  De  Auctoritate  Sac.  Script.  Ch.  I.  Here  he 
defends  the  Scriptures  against  Christians,  and  Ch.  II.  against  tlie  not 
Christians. 


352  SPURIOUS  BOOKS. 

tament  apply  also  to  the  new,^  and  need  not  be  re- 
peated. Bearing  these  in  mind,  let  us  subject 
these  writings  to  the  same  test.  To  do  this  we 
must  examine  the  works  themselves.  This  general 
thesis  may  be  laid  down  :  All  the  writings  in  the 
New  Testament,  as  well  as  the  Old,  contain  marks 
of  their  human  origin,  of  human  weakness  and  im- 
perfection. 

Now  in  the  New  Testament  as  in  the  Old,  w^e 
have  spurious  works  mixed  with  the  genuine.  To 
separate  the  former  from  the  latter,  is  not  an  easy 
work,  perhaps  not  possible,  at  this  day.  How- 
ever there  are  some  books  of  unquestionable  genu- 
ineness, and  others  whose  spurious  character  is 
almost  demonstrated.  Modern  criticism  and  an- 
cient authority  seem  to  decide  that  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  is  not  the  work  of  Paul,  but  of  some 
unknown  author  ;  that  the  second  Epistle  of  Peter 
is  not  from  that  apostle,  but  from  one  who,  as 
Scaliger  said,  "abused  his  leisure  time ;"  the  se- 
cond and  third  of  John ;  the  Epistles  of  James  and 
Jude  are  not  from  the  apostohc  persons  whose 
names  they  bear  ;  and  that  the  book  of  the  Revela- 
tion is  not  the  w^ork  of  John  the  Evangelist.  Ob- 
jections have  been  brought  against  some  other  epis- 
tles, which  however  do  not  appear  so  well  founded, 
and  against  some  of  the  Evangelists  which  will  be 
presently  alluded  to.  Then,  if  the  above  remarks 
be  correct,  there  are  seven  works  in  the  New 
Testament  whose  claim  to  apostolical  authority  is 

'  See  above,  B.  IV.  Ch.  I.  and  II. 


THE   LETTERS  OF  THE  APOSTLES.  353 

doubted  with  more  or  less  reason.  As  these  dis- 
puted writings  themselves  are  not  of  any  great 
practical  importance  in  this  connection,  even  if  gen- 
uine, they  may  be  neglected  in  the  present  exami- 
nation.^ If  the  other  writings,  whose  claim  to  an 
apostolic  origin  is  stronger,  are  not  found  miraculous 
and  infallible,  still  less  shall  be  expected  of  these. 
The  rest  of  the  New  Testament  may  be  divided 
into  the  epistolary  and  the  historical  wntings. 

I.  Of  the  Epistolary  Writings  of  the  New  Testament. 

These  are  the  oldest  Christian  documents  ;  the 
works  of  Paul,  Peter,  and  John,  the  most  illustrious 
of  the  early  disciples,  the  "  chiefest  apostles,"  and 
most  instrumental  in  founding  the  Christian  church. 
If  any  of  the  early  Christians  received  miraculous 
inspiration,  it  must  be  the  apostles  ;  if  any  of  the 
apostles,  it  must  be  one,  or  all,  of  these  three.  To 
determine  their  claims,  the  works  of  the  three 
may  be  examined  together,  for  the  sake  of  brevity. 

Now  at  the  first  view  of  these  fifteen  epistles,  it 
does  not  appear  that  any  miraculous  inspiration 
was  required  to  wiite  these  more  than  the  letters 
of  St.  Cyprian  or  Fenelon.  They  contain  nothing 
above  the  reach  of  human  faculties,  and  to  assume 

1  The  non-apostolical  origin  of  these  seven  books  is  by  no  means  f  zed 
and  agreed  upon  by  all  the  critics.  See,  who  will,  the  discussions  in  the 
Introductions  of  Michaclis,  Hug.  do  Wette,  and  the  numerous  mono- 
grams on  these  points.  Some  information  may  be  found  in  a  popular 
shape,  in  the  little  work  of  Olshauscn,  Genuineness  of  tlie  New  Testa- 
ment ;  Andover,  1838. 
45 


354  IJNSPIRATION  OF  THE    APOSTLES. 

a  miraculous  agency  is  contrary  to  the  inductive 
method,  to  say  the  least  of  it. 

Do  the  writers  ever  claim  a.  peculiar  and  miracu- 
lous inspiration  ?  The  farthest  from  it  possible. 
Paul  speaks  of  his  inspiration,  but  admits  that,  of 
all  Christians,  "  No  man  can  say  Jesus  is  the  Lord," 
that  is,  Christianity  is  true,  "  but  by  the  Holy 
Ghost."  He  refers  wisdom,  faith,  eloquence, 
learning,  slUU  in  the  interpretation  of  tongues, 
ability  to  teach,  or  heal  diseases,  to  inspira- 
tion. "  All  these  worketh  that  one  and  self-same 
spirit."^  The  Spirit  of  Christ  was  in  all  Christian 
hearts  ;  they  all  received  the  "  Spirit  of  God." 
That  was  Paul's  view  of  inspiration.  He  and  his 
fellow-apostles  were  servants  that  helped  others  to 
believe.  He  had  the  gift  of  teaching  in  a  more 
eminent  degree,  and  enjoyed  a  greater  "  abundance 
of  revelations,"  and  therefore  taught.  John  carries 
the  doctrine  of  the  universal  inspiration  of  Christ- 
ians still  farther. 

Now,  if  the  apostles  had  this  miraculous  and 
peculiar  inspiration,  and  through  modesty,  did  not 
state  it,  they  must  yet  have  known  the  fact.  But 
it  is  notorious  they  taught  not  in  the  name  of  any 
private  inspiration,  but  in  that  of  Jesus.^ 

But  even  if  the  apostles  claimed  miraculous  and 

1  1  Cor.  XII.  1,  et  seq. 

*  This  point  has  been  ably  touched  by  Spinoza,  Tract,  theol.  polit. 
Chap.  XI.  ed.  Paulus.  Vol.  I.  p.  315,  et  seq.  From  him  both  Leclerc, 
(Lettres  des  quelques  Juifs),  Rich.  Simon,  (Hist.  Grit,  du  V.  T.)  seem 
to  have  drawn  some  of  their  stores.  See  also  the  acute  remarks  of  Les- 
sing,  Werke,  ed.  Carlsruhe,  1824,  Vol.  XXIV.  p.  84,  et  seq. 


DIFFICULTIES  OF   THE  APOSTLES,  355 

infallible  inspiration,  and  taught  with  authority 
they  pretended  to  derive  therefrom,  still  their  claim 
could  not  be  granted,  for,  if  infallibly  inspired,  they 
must  be  ready  for  all  emergencies.  Now  a  prac- 
tical question  arose  in  a  novel  case,  which  was  a 
test  of  their  inspiration  :  Should  they  admit  the 
Gentiles  to  Christianity  ?  The  book  of  Acts  re- 
lates, that  Peter  required  a  special  and  miraculous 
vision  to  enlighten  him  on  this  head.  He  seems 
surprised  to  find  that  "  God  is  no  respecter  of 
persons,"  but  will  allow  all  religious  men  of  any 
nation  to  become  Christians.^  Had  he  been  mira- 
culously inspired  before,  to  what  purpose  the  vision  ? 
If  the  apostles  were  infallibly  inspired,  they  could 
not  disagree  on  any  point.  Now  another  question 
comes  up :  Shall  the  Gentiles  keep  the  old  ceremo- 
nial Law  of  Moses,  and  be  circumcised  ?"  It  would 
seem  that  men  of  common  freedom  of  thought,  who 
had  heard  the  sermon  on  the  mount,  would  not  need 
miraculous  help  to  decide  so  plain  a  question.  If 
they  had  the  alleged  inspiration,  each  must  know 
at  once  how  to  decide,  and  all  would  decide 
in  the  same  w^ay  without  consultation.  But  such 
was  not  the  fact ;  they  were  divided  on  this  very 
question  —  plain  as  it  is  —  and  held  a  meeting  of 
the  Christians  ;  the  "  apostles  and  elders  came  to- 
gether to  consider  this  matter."  It  was  not  a  plain 
case,  there  was  "  much  disputing  "  about  it.    Peter, 

'  Acts  X.  1,  et  seq.     From  this  we  need  not  conclude,  with  Hennel, 
tliat  Jesus  was  of  the  same  narrow  way  of  thinking  with  his  disciples. 
^  Acts  XV.  ],et  seq. 


356  MISTAKES  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

Barnabas,  and  Paul,  spoke  against  the  Law ; 
James,  as  chairman  of  the  meeting,  sums  up  the 
matter  before  putting  the  question,  takes  a  middle 
ground,  proposes  a  resolution  that  all  the  Mosaic 
ritual  should  not  be  imposed  upon  the  Gentile  con- 
verts, but  only  a  few  of  its  prohibitions,  which  he 
reckons  "  necessary  things."  He  comes  to  this  con- 
clusion, not  by  special  inspiration  —  of  which  no 
mention  is  made  in  the  meeting — but  from  Peter's 
statement  of  facts,  and  from  a  passage  in  the  Pro- 
phet who  says,  that  "  all  the  Gentiles  might  seek 
after  the  Lord."  The  question  was  put ;  the  chair- 
man's motion  prevailed  ;  a  circular  was  drawn  up 
in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  assembly, 
and  sent  to  the  Churches.  But  Paul  and  Peter 
seem  to  have  disregarded  it,  one  going  beyond,  the 
other  falling  short  of  its  requisitions. 

Then,  again,  the  apostles  differed  on  some  points. 
Paul  and  Barnabas  had  a  sharp  discussion,  and  se- 
parated.^ Could  infallible  men  fall  out  ?  Paul  had 
little  respect  for  those  "  that  were  apostles  before 
him,"  and  "  withstood  Peter  to  the  face."  ^ 

These  Apostles  were  mistaken  in  several  things  ; 
in  their  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  any 
one  may  see  by  examining  the  passages  cited  by 
Peter  in  the  Acts,^  or  those  of  Paul.''  They  were 
all  mistaken  in  this  capital  doctrine :  That  Jesus 

'  Acts  XV.  39. 

«  Gal.  I.  ll-H.  14. 

»  Acts  II.  14-21,  25-34,  III.  18,  21-24,  IV.  25,  26,  et  al. 

*  Gal.  IV.  24,  et  seq. ;  1  Cor.  X.  4,  et  seq.,  et  al. 


THE  EVANGELISTS.  357 

would  return  to  Judea,  the  general  resurrection  and 
judgment  take  place  and  the  world  he  destroyed 
within  a  very  few  years,  during  the  life-time  of  the 
Apostles.  This  is  a  very  strongly  marked  feature 
in  their  teaching.^  From  the  douhtful  epistle 
ascrihed  to  Peter,  it  seems  that  as  times  went  by 
and  the  world  continued,  scoffers  very  naturally 
doubted  the  truth  of  this  opinion,^  but  were  assured 
it  would  hold  good. 

II.  Of  the  Historical  IVritings  of  the  New   Tes- 
tament. 

Here  we  have,  apparently,  the  works  of  Matthew 
and  John,  two  of  the  immediate  disciples  of  Jesus, 
and  of  Mark  and  Luke,  the  companions  of  Peter 
and  Paul.  The  first  question  is,  have  we  really 
the  works  of  these  four  writers  ?  It  is  a  question 
which  can  by  no  means  be  readily  and  satisfactorily 
answered  in  the  affirmative.  However,  it  cannot 
be  entered  upon  in  this  place  ;'  but  admitting,  in 
argument,  the  works  are  genuine,  at  the  first  view. 


'  See  the  essay  of  Mr.  Norton  on  this  point,  in  Statement  of  Reasons, 
&c.,  p.  297,  et  seq.,  and  De  Potter,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  I.  p.  cxl.  et  seq. 

'  2  Pet.  II.  4,  et  seq. 

'  On  the  afSrmative  side,  see  Paley,  Evidences,  Pt.  I.;  the  masterly 
Treatise  of  Mr.  Norton,  Genuineness  of  the  Gospels ;  Prof.  Stuart's 
Review  of  it  in  Bib.  Rep.  for  1S37-8 ;  and  Lardner's  Credibilit}',  &c. 
See,  on  the  other  side,  the  popular  but  important  remarks  of  Hennel,  ubi 
sup.  Ch.  III.- VI.  Strauss.  Glaubenslehre,  §  15;  and  the  Life  of  Jesus, 
by  Strauss,  Theile,  Neander,  &c.,  «fec. ;  the  Introductions  of  Hug.  De 
Wette  and  Credner.  See  also  Bruno  Baur's  Kritik  der  evang.  Geschichte 
des  Johannes,  1840. 


358  THE  STRIKING  DISAGREEMENT 

there  seems  no  need  of  miraculous  inspiration  in 
the  case  of  honest  men  wishing  to  relate  what  they 
had  seen,  heard  or  felt.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  why 
miraculous  and  infallible  inspiration  was  needed 
to  write  the  memoirs  of  Jesus  and  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  more  than  the  memoirs  of  Socrates,  or  the 
Acts  of  the  Martyrs.  The  writers  never  claim  such 
an  inspiration.  Matthew  and  Mark  never  speak  of 
themselves  as  writers  ;  Luke  refers  to  certain  "  eye- 
witnesses and  ministers  of  the  Word  "  as  his  au- 
thority for  the  facts  of  the  Gospel.  John  claims  it 
as  little  as  the  others,  though  an  unknown  writer,  at 
the  end  of  his  Gospels,  testifies  to  the  truth  of  the 
narrative.^ 

But  even  if  they  made  this  claim,  so  often  made 
for  them,  it  could  not  be  granted,  for  their  testimony 
does  not  agree.  The  Jesus  of  the  Synoptics  differs 
very  widely  from  the  Jesus  of  John,  in  his  actions, 
discourses  and  general  spiritual  character,  as  much 
as  the  Socrates  of  Xenophon  from  that  of  Plato. 
This  point  was  acknowledged  by  the  Fathers.  But 
not  to  dwell  on  a  general  disagreement,  nor  to  come 
down  to  the  perpetual  and  well  known  disagreement 
in  minute  details,  there  is  a  most  striking  differ- 
ence between  the  genealogies  of  Jesus,  as  given  by 
Matthew  and  Luke.  Both  agree  that  Jesus  was 
descended  from  David  by  the  father's  side  :  but 
Matthew  counts  twenty-five  ancestors  between  David 
and  Joseph,  the  husband  of  Mary,  and  Luke  enu- 

'  Luke  I.  1,  et  seq.     (See  Acts  I.  1,  et  seq  )     John  XXI.  24. 


,ip' 


OF  THE   EVANGELISTS. 


339 


merates  forty-two  ancestors,  of  whom  thirty-eight 
arc  never  mentioned  by  Matthew ;  one  derives  his 
descent  from  the  ilhistrious  Solomon,  the  other  from 
the  obscure  Nathan  ;  one  makes  Nazareth  his  birth- 
place, the  other  Bethlehem.     They  disagree,  like- 
wise, in  numerous  particulars  of  the  early  history, 
such  as  the  miraculous  appearance  of  the  star,  the 
Magi,  the  flight  into  Egypt,  the  songs,  the  angels 
and  the  dreams.^     Yet  notwithstanding  these  gene- 
alooies,  both  agree  that  Jesus  had  no  human  father, 
a  fact  never  referred  to  by  Mark  or  John,  by  Peter 
or  Paul,  nor  by  Jesus  himself,  or  the  people  about 
him,  who  took  him  for  the  son  of  Joseph  the  car- 
penter.    If  he  had  no  human  father,  how  was  he 
descended  from  David  ?    Are  we  to  believe  a  mira- 
cle so  surprising,  on  the  doubtful  statement  of  two 
men  whom  we  know  nothing  of,  but  who  contradict 
themselves  and  one  another,  and  relate  the  strangest 
marvels  ?     Is  it  a  part  of  Religion  to  believe  such 
stories  ?     What  else  would  we  believe  on  such  evi- 
dence ?     It  were  easy  to  point  out  other  disagree- 
ments in  the  words,  and  actions,  and  predictions 
ascribed  to  Jesus  ;  in  the  accounts  of  his  resurrection 
and  the  impossible  events  of  his  subsequent  history, 
but  it  is  not  needed  for  the  present  purpose.^     The 

1  See  these  discrepancies  ably  stated  by  Mr.  Norton,  ubi  sup.  p.  liii. 
et  seq. ,  and  Strauss,  Leben  Jesu,  §  19-38,  and  the  popular  statement  in 
Harwood,  ubi  sup.  p.  20,  et  seq. ;  Hennel,  ubi  sup.  Ch.  III.  V.  Compare 
the  Apocryphal  Gospels  in  Theile,  Codex  Apocryphus,  N.  T.  Leips.  1832, 
Vol.  I. 

"  See,  who  will,  Evanson,  Dissonance  of  the  Evangelists,  Gloucester, 
1805;  Strauss,  §  132-142;  Wolfenbattel.  Fragment.  UeberAuferstehlungs- 
geschichte,  and  the  numerous  replies. 


360 


CHRISTIAJMITY  AND  ITS  DOCUMENTS. 


book  of  the  Acts,  of  a  mjthical  and  legendary  char- 
acter, requires  no  special  examination. 

These  things  do  not  militate  with  the  fairness 
of  the  Evangelists.  Had  they  been  deceivers,  we 
should  not  have  had  their  narrative,  —  so  beautiful, 
so  touching,  so  stamped  with  reality  in  some  parts, 
with  simple-heartedness  in  all,  —  but  a  consistent 
and  lawyer-like  "  statement  of  facts  "  with  reflec- 
tions. But  throughout  the  whole  there  is  not  a 
word  of  admiration  or  even  sympathy  bestowed 
upon  Jesus.  The  honesty  of  the  writers  seems 
beyond  question.  This,  however,  must  be  admitted, 
that  the  facts  of  the  case  will  not  warrant  the  claim 
of  miraculous  and  infallible  inspiration  that  is  made 
for  them,  and  that  w^e  are  to  examine  with  great 
caution  before  we  accept  their  statements,  which, 
in  detail,  have  but  a  low  degree  of  historical  credi- 
bility. 

These  facts  cannot  be  hushed  up,  nor  put  out  of 
sight ;  we  must  look  them  in  the  face.  They  have 
pained  already  many  a  breaking  heart,  who  could 
not  separate  the  truth  of  Christianity  from  the  errors 
of  its  record  —  felt  with  groans  that  could  not  be 
uttered.  It  need  not  be  so.  Christianity  is  one 
thing ;  the  Christian  documents  a  very  different 
matter.  In  them,  as  in  the  Old  Testament,  there 
is  a  mythology  ;  the  natural  and  the  supernatural 
are  confounded.  The  Gospels  cannot  be  taken  as 
historical  "  authorities,"  until  a  searching  criticism 
has  separated  their  mythological  and  legendary  nar- 


NATURAL  ORIGIN   OF  THE  RECORD.  361 

ratives,  for  what  is  purely  a  matter-of-fact.  Some 
attempt  to  remove  the  difficulty  by  striking  out  the 
offensive  passages/  and  others  by  e.\i)laiirmg  them 
away,  and  still  claim  miraculous  infallibility  for  all 
the  rest,  which  the  writers  never  claim  for  them- 
selves nor  allow  one  another.  Let  us  rest  on  things 
as  they  are  ;  not  base  our  church  on  things  that 
are  not. 

It  may  be  asked  :  If  there  is  no  foundation  of 
fact  for  the  miraculous  part  of  the  narrative,  why 
did  the  writers  dwell  so  much  on  this  part  ?  The 
question  may  be  asked  in  the  case  of  the  catholic 
miracles;  those  of  St.  Bernard;  of  witchcraft  and  pos- 
sessions before  named.  It  is  difficult  at  least  to  de- 
termine what  lay  at  the  bottom  of  the  matter.  But 
this  is  a  fixed  point,  that  Devils,  Ghosts  and  Witches 
only  appear  where  they  were  previously  believed 
in,  and  there  they  continually  appear  ;  "  imagination 
bodies  forth  the  forms  of  things  not  seen."  The 
Catholic  sees  the  Virgin,  and  the  Mormonite  finds 
miracles  today.  Will  not  the  same  cause  —  what- 
ever it  be  —  help  to  explain  the  visions  of  Paul,  the 
angels,  and  miracles  of  the  New  Testament  ?  It 
is  not  many  years  since  the  divines  of  New  Eng- 
land made  collections  of  accounts  of  the  devil 
appearing  to  men.  If  a  religious  teacher  should 
appear  at  the  time  and  place  as  Jesus  appeared,  it 
would  be  surprising,  almost  beyond  belief,  if  mirac- 
ulous tales  were  not  connected  with  his  birth,  life 


'  See  Norton,  Genuineness,  p.  liii.  et  seq. 
46 


362 


GOSPELS   DO  JXOT   EXAGGERATE. 


and  death.  Antiquity  is  full  of  sons  of  God,  and 
wonderworkers.  The  story  of  Lazarus,  and  even 
that  of  the  Ascension,  is  not  without  its  parallels. 

But  if  all  the  charges  against  the  New  Testament 
are  true,  what  then  ?  Why,  this ;  honest  men  ; 
noble,  pious,  simple-hearted  men  ;  the  zealous 
Apostles  of  Christianity ;  the  first  to  espouse  it ; 
willing  to  leave  all,  comfort,  friends,  life  for  its 
sake,  after  all,  were  but  men,  such  as  are  born  in 
these  days,  fallible,  like  ourselves ;  they  shared  like 
us,  the  ignorance  and  superstition  of  the  times,  and 
though  earnest  in  looking  saw  not  all  things,  but,  as 
the  wisest  of  them  said,  "  through  a  glass,  darkly," 
and  made  some  confusion  among  things  they  did 
see.  Do  we  ask  infallible  evidence  to  prove  that 
Jesus  lived  a  divine  life  ?  We  can  have  no  such 
testimony.  We  know  that  if  he  taught  absolute 
Religion,  Christianity  is  absolutely  true ;  that  if  he 
did  not  teach  it,  still  absolute  Religion  remains,  the 
everlasting  Rock  of  Faith,  in  spite  of  the  defects  of 
historical  evidence,  or  the  limitations  of  this  or  lhat 
man.  Has  the  New  Testament  exaggerated  the 
greatness  and  embellished  the  beauty  of  Jesus  ? 
Measure  his  religious  doctrine  by  that  of  the  time 
and  place  he  lived  in,  or  that  of  any  time  and  any 
place  !  Yes,  by  the  doctrine  of  eternal  truth.  Con- 
sider what  a  work  his  words  and  deeds  have  wrought 
in  the  world  ;  that  he  is  still  the  way,  the  truth  and 
the  LIFE  to  millions ;  that  he  is  reckoned  a  God  by 
the  mass  of  Christians,  his  Word  their  standard  of 


THE  GREATNESS  OF  JESUS.  363 

truth,  his  Life  the  Ideal  they  see  too  for  above 
them  in  the  Heavens  for  their  imitation  ;  remem- 
ber that  the  greatest  minds  have  seen  no  farther, 
and  add(>d  nodiing  to  the  doctrine  of  Religion  ;  that 
the  richest  hearts  have  felt  no  deeper,  and  added 
nothing  to  the  sentiment  of  Religion  ;  have  set  no 
loftier  aim,  no  truer  method  than  his  of  perfect 
LOVE  TO  GOD  AND  MAN,  and  then  ask,  Have  the 
Evangelists  overrated  him  ?  We  can  learn  few 
facts  about  Jesus  ;  but  measure  him  by  the  shadow 
he  has  cast  into  the  world  ;  no,  by  the  light  he  has 
shed  upon  it,  not  by  things  in  which  Hercules  was 
his  equal,  and  Vishnu  his  superior.  Shall  we  be 
told,  Such  a  man  never  lived  ;  the  whole  story  is  a 
lie  ?  Suppose  that  Plato  and  Newton  never  lived  ; 
that  their  story  is  a  lie.  But  who  did  their  works, 
and  thought  their  thought  ?  It  takes  a  Newton  to 
forge  a  Newton.  What  man  could  have  fabricated 
a  Jesus  ?     None  but  a  Jesus. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    ABSOLUTE    RELIGION    INDEPENDENT    OF   HISTORICAL   DOCU- 
MENTS  THE    BIBLE    AS    IT    IS. 

This  doctrine  of  the  infallible  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures  has  greater  power  with  Christians  at 
this  day  than  in  Paul's  time.  In  the  first  ages  of 
Christianity,  each  apostle  was  superior  to  the  Old 
Testament.  There  were  no  Scriptures  to  rely  on, 
for  the  New  Testament  was  not  written,  and  the 
Old  Testament  was  hostile.  The  Law  stood  in 
their  way,  a  law  of  sin  and  death  ;  the  greatest 
prophets  were  inferior  to  John  the  Baptist,  and  the 
least  in  the  Christian  kingdom  was  greater  than 
he  ;^  all  before  Jesus  were  "  thieves  and  robbers  " 
in  comparison.  Yet  Christianity  stood  without  the 
Old  Testament.  It  went  forward  without  it ;  made 
converts  and  produced  a  wondrous  change  in  the 
world.  The  Old  Testament  was  the  servant,  not 
the  master  of  the  early  Christians.     Each  church 

'  The  opinion  of  some  disciples  about  the  excellence  of  that  kingdom 
may  be  seen  in  Irenaeus,  Lib.  II.  Ch.  33,  where  he  speaks  of  the  Vine- 
Stocks. 


THE    BIBLE    AS    IT  IS.  365 

used  what  it  saw  fit.  Some  had  the  whole  of  the 
Old  Testament ;  some  but  a  part ;  others  added 
the  Apocrypha,  for  tliere  was  no  settled  canon, 
"  published  by  authority,  and  appointed  to  be  read 
in  churches."  So  it  was  with  the  New  Testament. 
Some  received  more  than  we,  others  less.  Such 
men  as  Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  Origen,  refer 
to  some  other  books,  just  as  they  quote  the  New 
Testament.  The  canon  of  the  New  Testament 
was  less  certain  than  the  Old.  Men  followed 
usage,  tradition,  or  good  sense  in  this  matter,  and 
at  last  the  present  collection  was  fixed  by  authority. 
But  by  what  test  were  its  limits  decided  ?  Alas, 
by  no  certain  criterion.^ 

Let  us  look  at  things  as  they  are.  Here  is  a 
collection  of  ancient  books,  spurious  and  genuine, 
Hebrew  and  Greek.  The  one  part  belongs  to  a 
mode  of  worship,  formal,  and  obsolete ;  the  other 
to  a  relio;ion,  actual,  spiritual,  still  alive.  The  one 
gives  us  a  Jehovah  jealous  and  angry ;  the  other  a 
Father  full  of  love.  Each  writer  in  both  divisions 
proves  by  his  imperfections  that  the  earth  did  not 
formerly  produce  a  different  race  of  men.  They 
contradict  one  another,  and  some  relate  what  no 
testimony  can  render  less  than  absurd  ;  but  yet  all 
taken   together,   spite   of  their  imperfections   and 


'  On  the  use  of  the  New  Testament  in  the  early  times,  see  Credner, 
Beitrilge  zur  Einleit,  in  biblischen  schriften.  Ch.  I.  p.  ]  -  90.  MOnscher 
Handbuch  der  Dogmengeschichte,  Vol.  I.  §  30-84.  Augusti,  Christli- 
chen  Archftologie,  Vol.  VI.  p.  I -244,  and  tiie  work  referred  to  in  tlie 
Preface,  Vol.  I.  §  18-29. 


363  WISE  USE  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

positive  faults,  form  such  a  collection  of  religious 
writings  as  the  world  never  saw,  so  deep,  so  rich, 
so  divine.  Are  not  the  Hebrew  Psalms  still  the 
best  part  of  the  Sunday  service  in  the  church  ? 
Truly  there  is  but  one  Religion  for  the  Jew,  the 
Gentile  and  the  Christian,  though  many  theologies 
for  each. 

Now,  unless  we  reject  this  treasure  entirely,  one  of 
two  things  must  be  done  :  either  we  must  pretend 
to  believe  the  whole,  absurdities  and  all ;  make  one 
part  just  as  valuable  as  the  other,  the  Law  of  Moses 
as  the  Gospel  of  Jesus,  David's  curse,  as  Christ's 
blessing,  —  and  then  we  make  the  Bible  our  mas- 
ter, who  puts  Common  Sense  and  Reason  to  silence, 
and  drives  Conscience  and  the  religious  Sentiment 
out  of  the  church :  or  else  we  must  accept  what  is 
true,  good  and  divine  therein  ;  take  each  part  for 
what  it  is  worth  ;  gather  the  good  together,  and 
leave  the  bad  to  itself — and  then  we  make  the 
Bible  our  servant  and  helper,  who  assists  common 
Sense  and  Reason,  stimulates  Conscience  and  Reli- 
gion, CO  working  with  them  all.  A  third  thing  is 
not  possible. 

Which  shall  be  done  ?  The  practical  answer 
was  given  long  ago;  it  has  always  been  given, 
except  in  times  of  fanatical  excitement.  Because 
there  is  chaff  and  husks  in  the  Bible,  are  we  to  eat 
thereof,  when  there  is  bread  enough,  and  to  spare  ? 
Pious  men  neglect  what  does  not  edify.  Who  reads 
gladly,  the  curses  of  the   Psalmist ;   chapters  that 


THE   BIBLE  QUESTION.  367 

make  God  a  man  of  war,  a  jealous  God,  the  butcher 
of  the  nations  ?  Certainly  but  few.  Let  them  be 
exhorted  to  repentance.  Men  cannot  gather  grapes 
of  thorns,  grasp  them  never  so  lovingly  ;  honest  men 
will  leave  the  thorns,  or  pluck  them  up.  Now 
Criticism  —  which  the  tiiinking  character  of  the 
age  demands  —  asks  men  to  do  consciously,  and 
thoroughly  what  they  have  always  done  imperfectly 
and  with  no  science  but  that  of  a  pious  heart ;  that 
is,  to  divide  the  Word  rightly ;  separate  mythology 
from  history,  fact  from  fiction,  what  is  religious  and 
of  God,  from  what  is  earthly  and  not  of  God  ;  to 
take  the  Bible  for  what  it  is  worth.  Fearful  of  the 
issue  we  may  put  off  the  question  a  few  years ; 
may  insist  as  strongly  as  ever  on  what  we  know  to 
be  false ;  ask  men  to  believe  it,  because  in  the 
records,  and  thus  drive  bad  men  to  hypocrisy,  good 
men  to  madness,  and  thinking  men  to  "  infidelity ;" 
we  may  throw  obstacles  in  the  way  of  Religion 
and  Morality,  and  tie  the  millstone  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  about  the  neck  of  Piety  as  before. 
We  may  call  men  "  Infidels  and  Atheists,"  whom 
Reason  and  Religion  compel  to  uplift  their  voice 
against  the  idolatry  of  the  church  ;  or  we  may  at- 
tempt to  smooth  over  the  matter,  and  say  nothing 
about  it,  or  not  what  we  think.  But  it  will  not  do. 
The  day  of  Fire  and  Fagots  is  ended  ;  the  tooth- 
less "  Guardian  of  the  Faith  "  can  only  bark.  The 
question  will  come,  though  alas  for  that  man  by 
whom  it  comes. 


368  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  KORAN. 

Other  religions  have  their  sacred  books,  their  Ko- 
rans,  Vedas,  Shasters,  which  must  be  received  in 
spite  of  Reason,  as  masters  of  the  soul.  Some  would 
put  the  Bible  on  the  same  ground.  They  glory  in 
believing  whatever  is  prefaced  with  a  Thus-saith- 
the-Lord  ;  but  then  all  superiority  of  the  Bible  over 
these  books  disappears  forever ;  the  day-light  gives 
place  to  the  shadow  ;  the  Law  of  Sin  and  Death 
casts  out  the  Law  of  the  Spirit  of  Life.  Let 
honest  Reason  and  Religion  pursue  their  own  way. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CAUSE  OF  THE  FALSE  AND  THE  REAL  VENERATION  FOR  THE 

BIBLE. 

The  indolent  and  the  sensual  love  to  have  a  vis- 
ible master  in  spiritual  things,  who  will  spare  them 
the  agony  of  thought.  Creduhty,  Ignorance,  and 
Superstition  conjure  up  phantoms  to  attend  them. 
Some  honest  men  find  it  difficult  to  live  nobly  and 
divine  ;  to  keep  the  well  of  life  pure  and  undisturb- 
ed, the  inward  ear  always  open  and  quick  to  the 
voice  of  God  in  the  soul.  They  see  too,  how  often 
the  ignorant,  the  wicked,  the  superstitious  and  the 
fanatical  confound  their  own  passions  with  the  still 
small  voice  of  God  ;  they  see  what  evil,  deep  and 
dreadful,  comes  of  this  confusion.  Such  is  the 
force  of  prejudice,  indolence,  habit,  they  find  it 
sometimes  difficult  to  distinguish  between  right  and 
wrong  ;  they  love  to  lean  on  the  Most  High,  and 
the  Bible  is  declared  His  word.  They  say,  there- 
fore, by  their  action.  Let  us  have  some  outward 
rule  and  authority,  which,  being  infallible,  shall  help 
the  still  smallness  of  God's  voice  in  the  heart ;  it 

47 


370  CONSEQUENCE  OF  THIS  DOCTRINE. 

will  bless  us  when  weak ;  we  will  make  it  our 
master  and  obey  its  voice.  It  shall  be  to  us  as  a 
God,  and  we  will  fall  down  and  worship  it.  But 
alas,  it  is  not  so.  The  word  of  God  —  no  Scripture 
will  hold  that.  It  speaks  in  a  language  no  honest 
mind  can  fail  to  read.  Such  seem  the  most  prom- 
inent causes  that  have  made  the  Bible  an  Idol  of 
the  Christians. 

No  doubt  it  will  be  said,  "  Such  views  are  dan- 
gerous, for  the  mass  of  men  must  always  take  Au- 
thority for  Truth,  not  Truth  for  Authority."  But 
are  they  not  true  ?  If  so  the  consequences  are  not 
ours  ;  they  belong  to  the  Author  of  truth,  who  can 
manage  his  own  affairs,  without  our  meddling.  Is 
the  wrong  way  safer  than  the  right  ?  No  doubt  it 
was  reckoned  dangerous  to  abandon  the  worship 
of  Diana,  of  the  cross,  the  saints  and  their  re- 
liques ;  but  the  world  stands,  though  "  the  image 
that  fell  down  from  Jupiter  "  is  forgotten.  If  these 
doctrines  be  true,  men  need  not  fear  they  shall 
have  no  "  standard  of  religious  faith  and  practice." 
Reason,  Conscience,  Religion  still  remain  ;  God's 
voice  is  Nature  ;  His  Word  is  the  Soul.  His  Laws 
remain  ever  unchanged,  though  we  set  up  our  idols 
or  pluck  them  down.  We  still  have  the  same 
guide  with  Moses  and  David,  Socrates  and  Zoroas- 
ter, Paul  and  John  and  Luther,  Fenelon,  Taylor 
and  Fox  ;  yes  the  same  guide  that  led  Jesus,  the 
first-born  of  many  brothers,  in  his  steep  and  lonely 
pilgrimage. 


EXCELLENCE  OF  THE   BIBLE.  37 1 

This  doctrine  takes  nothing  from  the  Bible  but 
its  errors,  which  only  weaken  its  strength ;  its  truth 
remains,  brilliant  and  burning  in  the  light  of  life. 
It  calls  us  away  from  each  outward  standard  to  the 
eternal  truths  of  God  ;  from  the  letter  and  the  im- 
perfect Scripture  of  the  Word  to  the  living  Word 
itself.  Then  we  see  the  true  relation  the  Bible 
sustains  to  the  soul ;  the  cause  of  the  real  esteem 
in  which  it  is  held  is  seen  to  be  in  its  moral  and  re- 
ligious truths ;  their  power  and  loveliness  appear. 
These  have  had  the  greatest  influence  on  the  loftiest 
minds  and  the  lowliest  hearts  for  eighteen  hundred 
years.  How  they  have  written  themselves  all  over 
the  world,  deepest  in  the  best  of  men !  What 
greatness  of  soul  has  been  found  amid  the  fragrant 
leaves  of  the  Bible,  sufficient  to  lead  men  to  em- 
brace its  truths,  though  at  the  expense  of  accepting 
tales  which  make  the  blood  curdle  ! 

Take  the  Bible  for  what  is  true  in  it,  and  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  a  grand  hymn  of  crea- 
tion, a  worthy  prelude  of  the  sublime  chants  that 
follow  ;  it  sings  this  truth  :  The  world  was  not 
always  ;  is  not  the  work  of  chance,  but  of  the 
living  God.  All  things  are  good,  made  to  be  blest. 
The  writer  —  who,  perhaps,  never  thought  he  was 
writing  "  an  article  of  faith  "  —  if  he  were  a  Jew, 
might  superstitiously  refer  the  Sabbath  to  the  time 
of  creation  and  the  agency  of  God,  just  as  the 
Greek  refers  one  festival  to  Hercules,  and  another 
to  Bacchus.  Then  oriental  Piety  comes  beautiful 
from  the  grave  hewn  in  the  rock  by  our  dull  The- 


372  EXCELLENCE  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

ology  ;  utters  her  word  of  counsel  and  hope  ;  sings 
her  mythological  poem,  and  warms  the  heart,  but 
does  not  teach  theology,  or  physical  science. 

The  sweet  notes  of  David's  prayer ;  his  mystic 
hymn  of  praise,  so  full  of  rippling  life ;  his  lofty 
Psalm,  which  seems  to  unite  the  warbling  music  of 
the  wind,  the  sun's  glance,  and  the  rush  of  the 
lightning ;  which  calls  on  the  mountain  and  the 
sea,  and  beast,  and  bird,  and  man,  to  join  his  full 
heart,  —  all  these  shall  be  sweet  and  elevating,  but 
we  shall  leave  his  pernicious  curse  to  perish  where 
it  fell. 

The  excellence  of  the  Hebrew  devotional  hymns 
has  never  been  surpassed.  Heathenism,  Chris- 
tianity, with  all  their  science,  arts,  literature,  bright 
and  many-colored,  have  little  that  approach  these. 
They  are  the  despair  of  imitators  ;  still  the  uttered 
prayer  of  the  Christian  world.  Tell  us  of  Greece, 
whose  air  was  redolent  of  song ;  its  language 
such  as  Jove  might  speak ;  its  sages,  heroes,  poets, 
honored  in  every  clime,  —  they  have  no  psalm  of 
prayer  and  praise  like  these  Hebrews,  the  devoutest 
of  men,  who  saw  God  always  before  them,  ready  to 
take  them  up  when  father  and  mother  let  them  fall. 

The  old  prophets  were  men  of  stalwart  and 
robust  character,  set  off  by  a  masculine  piety  that 
puts  to  shame  our  puny  littleness  of  heart.  They 
saw  hope  the  plainest  when  danger  was  most  im- 
minent, and  never  despaired.  Fear  of  the  people, 
the  rulers,  the  priests,  could  not  awe  them  to 
silence,    nor    gold    buy    smooth   things    from    the 


EXCELLENCE  OF  THE  BIBLE.  373 

prophet's  tongue.  They  left  Hypocrisy,  with  his 
weeds  and  weepers,  and  feigning  but  unstained 
handkerchief,  to  follow  the  coffin  he  knew  to  be 
empty,  and  went  their  own  way,  as  men.  What 
shall  screen  the  guilty  from  the  prophet's  word  ? 
Even  David  is  met  with  a  Thou-art-the-man. 
What  if  they  were  stoned,  imprisoned,  sawn  asun- 
der ?  It  was  a  prophet's  reward.  They  did  not 
prophecy  smooth  things  ;  they  gave  the  truth  and 
took  blows,  not  asking  love  for  love.  If  these  men 
are  set  up  as  masters  of  the  soul,  Justice  must 
break  her  staff  over  their  heads.  But  view  them 
as  patriots  whom  danger  aroused  from  the  repose  of 
life,  —  as  pious  men  awakened  by  concern  for  the 
public  virtue,  and  nobler  men  never  spoke  speech. 

Out  from  the  heart  of  Nature  rolled 
The  burdens  of  the  Bible  old. 

Little  needs  now  be  said  of  the  New  Testament, 
of  the  simple  truth  that  rustles  in  its  leaves,  its 
parables,  epistles,  where  Paul  lifts  up  his  manly 
voice,  and  John  pours  out  the  mystic  melody  of  his 
faith.  Why  tell  of  the  deep  words  of  Jesus  ?  Have 
we  exhausted  their  meaning  ?  The  world  —  has  it 
outgrown  love  to  God  and  man  ?  They  still  act  in 
gentle  bosoms,  giving  strength  to  the  strong,  and 
justice  and  meekness  and  charity  and  faith  to  beau- 
tiful souls,  long  tried  and  oppressed.  There  is  no 
need  of  new  words  to  tell  of  this. 

Now  it  is  not  in  nature  to  respect  the  false,  and 
yet  reverence  the  true.     Call  the  Bible  master  — 


374  SINS  JUSTIFIED  BY  THE  BIBLE. 

we  do  not  see  the  excellence  it  has.  Take  it  as 
other  books,  we  have  its  beauty,  truth,  Religion', 
not  its  deformities,  fables,  and  theology.  We  shall 
not  believe  in  ghosts,  though  Isaiah  did ;  nor  in 
devils,  though  Jesus  teach  there  are  such.  We 
shall  see  the  excellence  of  Paul  in  his  manly  char- 
acter, not  in  the  miracles  wrought  by  his  apron  ; 
the  nobleness  of  Jesus,  in  the  doctrine  he  taught 
and  the  life  he  lived,  not  in  the  walk  on  the  water 
or  the  miraculous  draughts  of  fish.  We  shall  care 
little  about  the  "  endless  genealogies  and  old-wives' 
fables,"  though  still  deemed  essential  by  many  — 
but  much  for  being  good  and  doing  good.  Our 
faith  —  let  him  shake  down  the  Andes  who  has  an 
arm  for  that  work. 

On  the  other  hand,  he  that  accepts  the  monstrous 
prodigies  of  the  Gospels  ;  is  delighted  to  believe 
that  Jesus  laid  stress  on  forms,  damning  all  but  the 
baptized ;  that  he  gave  Peter  authority  to  bind  and 
loose,  on  earth  and  in  heaven  ;  commanded  his 
disciples  to  make  friends  of  "  the  mammon  of  un- 
righteousness ;"  to  tease  God,  as  an  unjust  judge, 
into  compliance,  with  vain  repetitions  —  can  he  ac- 
cept so  purely  the  absolute  Religion  ?  It  is  not 
possible,  for  a  long  time,  to  make  serious  things  of 
trifles,  without  making  trifles  of  serious  things. 
Cannot  drunkenness  be  justified  out  of  the  Old 
Testament;  the  very  Solomon  advising  the  poor 
man  to  drown  his  sorrows  in  wine  ?  Jeremiah 
curses  the  man  that  will   not  fight.^     Is  not  Sarah 

'  Proverbs  XXXVI.  6,  et  seq.     Jer.  XLVIII.  10. 


.* 


CAUSE   OF  ITS  L\FLUi:iNCE.  375 

commended  by  tlie  Fatlicis  of  the  church,  and 
Abraham  by  the  Sons  ?  Men  justify  slavery  out  of 
the  New  Testament,  because  Paul  had  not  his  eye 
open  to  the  evil,  but  sent  back  a  fugitive.  It  is 
dangerous  to  rely  on  a  troubled  fountain  for  the 
water  of  life. 

The  influence  of  the  Bible,  past  and  present, 
rests  on  its  profound  religious  significance.  Its 
truths  not  only  sustain  themselves,  but  the  mass 
of  errors  connected  therewith.  Truth  can  never 
pass  aw^ay.  Men  sometimes  fear  the  Bible  will  be 
destroyed  by  freedom  of  thought  and  freedom  of 
speech.  Let  it  perish  if  such  be  the  case.  Truth 
cannot  fear  the  light,  nor  are  men  so  mad  as  to 
forsake  a  well  of  living  water.  All  the  free-think- 
ing in  the  world  could  not  destroy  the  Iliad ;  how 
much  less  the  truths  of  the  Bible.  Things  at  last 
will  pass  for  their  true  value.  The  truths  of  the 
Bible,  which  have  fed  and  comforted  the  noblest 
souls  for  so  many  centuries,  may  be  trusted  to  last 
our  day.  The  Bible  has  already  endured  the 
greatest  abuse  at  the  hands  of  its  friends,  who 
would  make  it  an  idol,  and  have  all  men  do  it  hom- 
age. We  need  call  none  our  Master  but  the  Fa- 
ther  of  All.  Yet  the  Bible,  if  wisely  used,  is  still  a 
blessed  teacher.  Spite  of  the  superstition  and  folly 
of  its  worshipers,  it  has  helped  millions  to  that 
fountain  where  Moses  and  Jesus,  with  the  holy- 
hearted  of  all  time,  have  stooped  and  been  filled. 
We  see  the  mistakes  of  its  writers,  for  though  noble 
and  of  great  stature,  they  saw  not  all  things.     W^e 


376  LASTING  TRUTHS  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

reject  their  follies  ;  but  their  words  of  truth  are  still 
before  us,  to  admonish,  to  encourage,  and  to  bless; 
From  time  to  time  God  raises  up  a  prophet  to  lead 
mankind.  He  speaks  his  word  as  it  is  given  him  ; 
serves  his  generation  for  the  time,  and  falls  at  last, 
when  it  is  expedient  he  should  give  way  to  the 
next  Comforter  God  shall  send.  But  mankind  is 
greater  than  a  man,  and  never  dies.  The  experi- 
ence of  the  past  lives  in  the  present.  The  light 
that  shone  at  Nineveh,  Egypt,  Judea,  Athens, 
Rome,  shines  no  more  from  those  points  ;  it  is  every- 
where. Can  Truth  decease,  and  a  good  idea  once 
made  real  ever  perish  ?  Mankind,  moving  solemnly 
on  its  appointed  road,  from  age  to  age,  passes  by 
its  imperfect  teachers,  guided  by  their  light,  blessed 
by  their  toil,  and  sprinkled  with  their  blood.  But 
Truth,  like  her  God,  is  before  and  above  us  forever. 
So  we  pass  by  the  lamps  of  the  street,  with  wonder 
at  their  light,  though  but  a  smoky  glare  ;  they 
seem  to  change  places  and  burn  dim  in  the  distance 
as  we  go  on  ;  at  last  the  solid  walls  of  darkness 
shut  them  in.  But  high  over  our  head  are  the  un- 
sullied stars,  which  never  change  their  place,  nor 
dim  their  eye.  So  the  truths  of  the  Scriptures  will 
teach  forever,  though  the  record  perish  and  its  au- 
thors be  forgot.  They  came  from  God,  through  the 
soul  of  man.  They  have  exhausted  neither.  Man 
is  greater  than  the  Bible.  That  is  one  ray  out  of 
the  sun  ;  one  drop  from  the  infinite  ocean.  The 
inward  Christ,  which  alone  abideth  forever,  has 
much  to  say  which  the  Bible  never  told,  though  it 


BIRLE   MADE  FOR   MAN.  377 

may  imply  the  whole.  The  Bible  is  made  for  man, 
not  man  for  the  Biblo.  Its  truths  are  old  as  the 
creation,  repeated  more  or  less  purely  in  every 
tongue.  Let  its  errors  and  absurdities  no  longer 
be  forced  on  the  pious  mind,  but  perish  forever; 
let  the  Word  of  God  come  through  Conscience, 
Reason,  and  holy  Feeling,  as  light  through  the 
windows  of  morning.  Worship  with  no  master  but 
God,  no  creed  but  Truth,  no  service  but  Love,  and 
we  have  nothing  to  fear. 


48 


BOOK    V 


"  When  the  Church,  without  temporal  support,  is  able  to  do  her 
great  works  upon  the  unforced  obedience  of  man,  it  argues  a  divinity 
about  her.  But  when  she  thinks  to  credit  and  better  her  spiritual  effica- 
cy, and  to  win  herself  respect  and  dread,  by  strutting  in  the  false  vizard 
of  worldly  authority,  it  is  evident  that  God  is  not  there,  but  that  her 
apostolic  virtue  is  departed  from  her,  and  hath  left  her  key-cold ; 
which  she  perceiving,  as  in  a  decayed  nature,  seeks  to  the  outward  fer- 
mentations and  chafings  of  worldly  help,  and  external  flourishes,  to 
fetch,  if  it  be  possible,  some  motion  into  her  extreme  parts,  or  to  hatch  a 
counterfeit  life  with  the  crafty  and  artificial  heat  of  jurisdiction.  But  it 
is  observable,  that  so  long  as  the  Church,  in  true  imitation  of  Christ,  can 
be  content  to  ride  upon  an  ass,  carrying  herself  and  her  government 
along  in  a  mean  and  simple  guise,  she  may  be,  as  he  is,  a  Lion  of  the 
tribe  of  Judah;  and  in  her  humility  all  men,  with  loud  hosannas,  will 
confess  her  greatness.  But  when,  despising  the  mighty  operation  of  the 
Spirit  by  the  weak  things  of  this  world,  she  thinks  to  make  herself  bigger 
and  more  considerable,  by  using  the  way  of  civil  force  and  jurisdiction, 
as  she  sits  upon  this  Lion,  she  changes  into  an  Ass,  and  instead  of  ho- 
sannas, every  man  pelts  her  with  stones  and  dirt."  Milton.  The  Rea- 
son of  Church  Government  urged  against  Prelacy,  Chap.  IIL 


BOOK   V. 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  RELIGIOUS  SENTIMENT  TO  THE  GREAT- 
EST OF  HUxMAN  INSTITUTIONS,  OR  A  DISCOURSE  OF  THE 
CHURCH. 


CHAPTER    I. 

CLAIMS    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    CHURCH. 

The  Catholic  church,  and  most  if  not  all  the 
minor  Protestant  churches,  claim  superiority  over 
Reason,  Conscience,  and  the  religious  Sentiment 
in  the  individual  soul,  assuming  dominion  over 
these,  as  the  state  justly  assumes  authority  over  the 
passions  and  selfishness  of  men.  Now  since  the 
former  are  not,  like  the  latter,  evils  in  themselves, 
the  church,  to  justify  itself,  must  denounce  them 
either  as  children  of  the  devil,  or  at  best  uncer- 
tain and  dangerous  guides.  The  churches  make 
this  claim  of  superiority,  either  distinctly  in  their 
creeds  and  formularies  of  faith,  claiming  a  divine 
origin  for  themselves,  or  by  implication,  in  their 
actions,  when  they  condemn  and  blast  with  curses 
such  as  differ  from  them  in  religious  matters,  and 


382       CHURCH  CONDEMNS  THE  HEATHEN. 

teach  doctrines  they  disapprove.  In  virtue  of  this 
assumed  superiority  the  Christian  church,  as  a 
whole,  denies  vs^hat  it  calls  "salvation"  to  all  out  of 
the  Christian  church  —  excepting  the  Jew^s  before 
Christ — though  their  life  be  divine  as  an  angel's. 
Hov\^  often  have  Socrates  and  that  long  line  of 
noble  men  that  honor  Greek  and  Roman  antiquity, 
been  damned  by  the  hirelings  of  the  church  ?  The 
Catholic  church  denies  salvation  to  all  out  of  its 
pale,  and  in  general  each  church  of  the  straiter  and 
more  numerous  sects  confirms  the  damnation  of 
all  who  think  more  liberally.  Men  who  expose  to 
scorn  the  folly  of  their  assumptions,  the  Bayles,  the 
Humes,  the  Voltaires  ;  men  who  will  not  accept 
their  pretensions,  the  Nevvtons,  the  Lockes,  the 
Priestleys,  have  the  warrant  of  their  eternal  dam- 
nation made  out  and  sealed  ;  not  because  their  life 
was  bad,  but  their  faith  not  orthodox  !  Supported 
by  this  claim  of  superiority  on  the  church's  part, 
canonized  Ignorance  may  blast  Learning ;  eccle- 
siastical Dulness  condemn  secular  Genius ;  and  sur- 
pliced  Impiety,  with  shameless  forehead,  may  damn 
Religion,  meek  and  thoughtful,  who  out  of  the  nar- 
row church,  walks  with  beautiful  feet  on  the  rug- 
ged path  of  mortal  life,  and  makes  real  the  king- 
dom of  Heaven. 

For  many  centuries  it  has  been  a  heresy  in  the 
Christian  church  to  believe  that  any  out  of  it,  could 
expect  less  than  damnation  in  the  next  world  ;  it 
is  still  a  heresy.  It  is  taught  with  great  plainness 
by  the  majority  of  Christian  churches,  that  God  will 


A  MODEL-MAJN   IIN   THF',  CHURCH. 


383 


damn  to  eternal  torments  the  majority  of  his  child- 
ren, because  they  are  not  in  the  Christian  church.' 
If  we  look  into  the  value  of  this  claim  of  supe- 
riority, we  shall  find  the  foundation  on  which  it 
rests,  it  must  be  either  in  the  idea  of  a  church,  or 
in  the  fact  of  the  Christian  church  receiving  this 
delegated  power  from  a  human  or  a  divine  founder. 

I.   Of  the  Idea  of  a  Church. 

We  do  not  speak,  except  figuratively,  of  a  church 
of  Moses  or  Mahomet.  It  seems  to  be  necessary 
to  the  idea  of  a  visible  and  historical  church,  that 
there  should  be  a  model-man  for  its  central  figure, 
around  whom  others  are  grouped.  He  must  be  an 
example  of  the  virtues  Religion  demands ;  an  in- 
carnation of  God,  to  adopt  the  phrase  of  ancient 
India,  which  has  since  become  so  prevalent  among 
the  Christians.  Now  Moses,  viewed  as  a  mytho- 
logical character,  and  Mahomet,  as  an  historical  per- 
son, were  not  model-men,  but  miraculous  characters 
whose  relation  to  God  and  perfection  of  life  each 
faithful  soul  might  not  share,  for  it  was  peculiar 
to  themselves.  Their  character  was  not  their  own 
work.  It  was  made  for  them  by  God,  and  therefore 
they  could  not  be  objects  of  imitation.     It  would  be 

'  For  the  opinion  of  the  Catholics  on  this  point,  see  instar  omnium 
Bossuet  Hist,  des  Variations,  Liv.  II.  et  al. ;  for  that  of  the  Protestants, 
see  their  various  confessions,  &c.  conveniently  collected  in  Niemeyer, 
Collectio  Confessionum  in  Ecclesiis  reformatis,  Lips.  1S40.  Hahn,  §  103 
and  143.  Bretschneider,  ubi  supra,  Vol.  II.  §  204,  p.  174,etseq.  But 
see  Ilase,  Hutterus  redivius,  §  88. 


384  CHRIST  THE  MODEL-MAN. 

impious  madness  in  the  Mussulman  or  the  Jew,  to 
aim  at  the  perfections  of  the  great  prophet  who 
stood  above  him. 

Now  there  is  this  peculiarity  of  the  majority  of 
Christians,  that  while  they  affirm  Jesus  to  be  God, 
by  the  divine  side,  they  yet  claim  him  as  a  model- 
man,  on  the  human  side,  and  so  call  him  a  God- 
man}  About  this  central  figure,  the  Christian 
church  is  grouped.  The  New  Testament  repre- 
sents him  as  the  Way,  the  Truth  and  the  Life,  for 
all  men.  The  church  also  assumes  that  he  is  to  be 
imitated.  But  it  assumes  this  in  defiance  of  logic, 
for  Jesus  is  represented  as  born  miraculously,  en- 
dowed with  miraculous  powers,  and  separated  from 
all  others  by  his  peculiar  relation  to  God,  in  short, 
as  a  God-man.  Of  course  he  must  be  a  model 
only  to  other  God-men,  who  are  born  miraculously, 
endowed  and  defended  as  he  was.  He  is  no 
model  to  men  born  of  flesh  and  blood,  who  have 
none  but  human  powers.  Still  more  if  the  Chris- 
tian church  view  him  as  the  infinite  God  with  all 
His  Infinity,  dwelling  in  the  flesh,  it  is  absurd  to 
make  him  a  model  for  men.  But  the  church  has 
rarely  stopped  at  an  absurdity.  It  "  calls  things 
that  are  not  as  if  they  were."  Yet  since  the  life 
of  Jesus  appears  so  entirely  human  in  his  friend- 
ships, sorrows,   love,   prayer,   temptation,   triumph 


'  This  term  God-man,  is  of  Heathen  origin,  and  involves  a  contradic- 
tion as  much  as  the  term  Circle-triangle.  The  common  mistake  seems  to 
arise  from  taking  a  figure  of  speech  for  a  matter  of  fact,  which  leads  to 
worse  confusion  in  Theology  than  it  would  in  Geometry. 


CHRIST  FOUNDED  NO  CHURCH.  385 

and  death,  and  since  he  never  claims  any  peculiar  re- 
lation to  God,  and  the  Apostles  now  and  then  repre- 
sent liim  as  the  great  example  —  the  church  could 
not  forbear  making-  him  the  model-man.  Hence 
the  homilies  of  the  Preacher  ;  the  disquisition  of  the 
Schoolmen  ;  the  glorifying  treatise  of  the  Mystic  ; 
the  painting  of  the  Artist,  giving  us  his  Triumph, 
Transfiguration,  Farewell  Meeting  and  Crucifixion 
—  all  aim  to  bring  the  Great  Exemplar  distinctly 
before  human  consciousness,  in  the  most  prominent 
scenes  of  his  life,  and  always  as  a  man,  that  the 
lesson  of  divinity  might  not  be  lost. 

Now  if  he  be  this  model-man,  and  the  church  is 
but  an  assembly  of  men  and  women  grouped  about 
him,  to  be  instructed  by  his  words,  and  warned  by 
his  example,  it  is  not  easy  to  see  what  authority 
it  naturally  has  over  the  individual  soul. 

II.    Of  the  Fact  of  the  Christian  Church. 

If  Jesus  were  but  a  wise  and  good  man,  no  word 
of  his  could  have  authority  over  Reason  and  Con- 
science. At  best,  it  could  repeat  their  oracles,  and 
therefore  he  could  never  found  an  institution  which 
should  be  master  of  the  Soul.  But  if  he  were 
what  the  church  pretends,  it  does  not  appear  that 
he  has  given  this  authority  to  any  on  earth,  if  we 
may  credit  the  Gospels.  Christ  established  no  or- 
ganization ;  founded  no  church  in  any  common 
sense  of  that  term.  He  taught  A^hcnever  men 
would  listen  ;   to  numbers  in  the  synagogue,  tem- 

40 


386  THE   APOSTLES  HAD  NO 

pie  and  fields ;  to  a  few  in  the  little  cottage  at 
Bethany,  and  in  the  fisher's  boat.  He  gave  no- 
instruction  to  his  disciples  to  found  a  church ;  he 
sent  them  forth  to  preach  the  glad  tidings  to  all 
mankind.  The  Spirit  within  was  their  calling  and 
authority ;  Jesus  their  example  ;  God  their  guide, 
protector  and  head.  In  all  the  ministrations  of  Je- 
sus, there  is  nothing  which  approaches  the  forma- 
tion of  a  church.  What  was  freely  received  was  to 
be  given  as  freely.  Baptism  and  the  Supper  were 
accidents.  He  appointed  no  particular  body  of 
men  as  teachers,  but  sent  forth  his  disciples  all  of 
them,  to  proclaim  the  truth.  The  twelve  had  no 
authority  over  others ;  no  preeminence  in  spreading 
the  Gospel.  Had  they  authority  to  bind  and  to 
loose  ?  Let  Paul  answer  the  question.^  The  first 
martyr,  the  most  active  Evangelist,  and  the  greatest 
Apostle  were  not  of  the  twelve.  Excepting  Peter, 
James  and  John,  the  rest  did  little  that  we  know 
of."  Did  Christ  say  —  as  Matthew  relates  —  that 
he  would  found  a  church  on  Simon  Peter?  Paul 
did  not  fear  to  withstand  him  to  the  face.  It  must 
have  been  a  sandy  foundation.^  Jesus  appointed 
neither  ])lace  nor  dmj  for  worship.  All  the  com- 
mands of  the  decalogue  are  reinforced  in  the  New 
Testament,  excepting  that  which  enjoins  the  Sab- 

'  Galdt.  I.-II.  et  al. 

2  See  in  Gieseler,  Text-book  of  eccles.  Hist.  Philad.  1836.  Vol.  I. 
§  25-27. 

3  Matth.  XVI.  18-19.  See  the  various  opinions  of  interpreters  of  this 
passage  so  improperly  thrust  into  the  mouth  of  Jesus,  in  De  Wette,  Ex- 
egetische  Handbuch  ziir  N.  T. 


AUTHORITY  TO  BIND  AND  LOOSE.  387 

bath  ;  all  the  rest  are  natural  laws.  Religion  with 
Jesus  was  a  worship  in  s])irit  and  in  truth  ;  a  ser- 
vice at  all  times  and  in  vAcry  place,  lie  fell  back 
on  absolute  Religion  and  Morality,  demanding  a 
divine  life,  purity  without  and  piety  within  ;  but  he 
left  the  When,  the  Where  and  the  How  to  take 
care  of  themselves.  A  church,  in  our  sense  of  the 
term,  is  not  so  much  as  named  in  the  Gospels.  But 
Religion,  above  all  emotions,  brings  men  together. 
Uniting  around  this  central  figure,  bound  by  the 
strongest  of  ties,  their  spiritual  sympathies  fired 
with  admiration  for  the  great  soul  of  Jesus,  relying 
on  his  authority,  there  grew  up,  unavoidably,  a  body 
of  men  and  women.  These  the  Apostles  call  the 
Church  of  Christ.  Absolute  Religion  as  it  de- 
scends into  practice,  takes  a  concrete  form,  which 
depends  on  the  character  and  condition  of  the  men 
who  receive  it.  Hence  come  the  rites,  dogmas 
and  ceremonies  which  mark  the  church  of  this  or 
that  age  and  nation. 

The  Christian  Church  may  be  defined  as  a  body 
of  men  and  women  assembling  for  the  purposes  of 
worship  and  religious  instruction.  It  has  the  pow- 
ers delegated  by  the  individuals  who  compose  it.^ 

'  See  the  various  opinions  of  the  Catliolics  and  Protestants  on  this 
point  collected  in  Winer,  Comparative  Darstellung  der  Lehrbegrifts,  Leip, 
1837, §  19. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  GRADUAL  FORMATION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

In  the  earliest  times  of  Christianity,  there  were 
no  regular  systems  of  doctrine,  to  bind  men  to- 
gether. The  truths  of  natural  Rehgion,  and  a 
somewhat  indefinite  behef  in  Jesus,  were  the 
cardinal  points  and  essentials  of  Christianity. 
The  public  religious  service  seems  perfectly  free. 
Where  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  was,  there  was  lib- 
erty. No  one  controlled  another's  freedom.  The 
much-vaunted  "  form  of  sound  words"  was  notori- 
riously  different  with  different  teachers.  Paul,  who 
came  late  to  Christianity,  boasts  that  he  received 
his  doctrine  straightway  from  God,  not  from  those 
"  who  were  apostles  before  him,"  whom  he  seems 
to  hold  in  small  esteem.  The  decision  of  the  coun- 
cil at  Jerusalem  did  not  bind  him.  The  practical 
side  of  Christianity  was  developed  more  than  the 
theoretical.  The  effect  of  the  truth  proclaimed 
with  freedom,  was  soon  manifest ;  for  the  errors 
and  superstition  of  the  apostles  could  not  chain  the 
truth.     Love  increased ;    Christianity   bore   fruit ; 


.* 


THE  EARLY  CHURCH.  389 

the  Church  spread  wide.  It  emancipated  men 
from  the  yokes  of  a  sacerdotal  class.  The  Christ- 
ians were  "  a  royal  priesthood  ;"  all  were  "  kings 
and  priests,"  appointed  to  oflfer  a  "  spiritual  sacri- 
fice." The  apostles,  who  had  seen  Jesus,  or  un- 
derstood his  doctrine,  naturally  took  the  lead  of 
men  they  sought  to  instruct.  As  the  number  of 
Christians  enlarged,  some  organization  was  needed 
for  practical  purposes.  The  pattern  was  taken 
from  the  Jewish  synagogue,  which  claimed  no  divine 
authority ;  not  from  the  Temple,  whose  officers 
made  such  a  claim.  Hence  there  were  elders  and 
deacons.  One  of  the  elders  was  an  overseer,  like 
the  "speaker"  in  a  legislative  assembly.  But  all 
these  were  chosen  by  the  people,  and  as  much  of 
the  people,  after  their  choice  as  before.  There  was 
no  clergy  and  no  laity ;  all  were  sons  of  God,  re- 
cipients of  inspiration  from  Him.  The  Holy  Ghost 
fell  upon  all.  The  wish  of  Moses  was  complied 
with,  and  God  put  his  spirit  upon  each  of  them  ; 
the  prediction  of  Joel  was  fulfilled,  and  their  sons 
and  their  daughters  prophesied ;  the  word  of  Jere- 
miah had  come  to  pass,  and  God  put  his  Law  in 
their  inward  parts,  and  wrote  it  on  their  heart,  and 
they  all  knew  the  Lord  from  the  least  to  the  greatest. 
They  were  "  anointed  of  God,"  and  "  knew  all 
things  ;"  they  "  needed  not  that  any  man  should 
teach  them."  Christ  and  God  were  in  all  holy 
hearts.  The  overseer,  or  bishop,  claimed  no  power 
over  the  people  ;  he  was  only  first  among  his  peers  ; 
the  greatest  only  because  the  servant  of  all.     Even 


390  THE   EARLY  CHURCH. 

Apollos,  Cephas,  Paul,  who  were  they  but  ser- 
vants, through  whom  others  believed  ?  The  bishop 
had  no  authority  to  bind  and  loose  in  heaven  or 
earth  ;  no  right  to  enforce  a  doctrine.  He  was  not 
the  standard  of  faith  ;  that  was  "  the  Mind  of  the 
Lord,"  which  He  would  reveal  to  all  who  sought 
it.  There  was  no  monopoly  of  teaching  on  the 
part  of  the  elders.  A  bishop,  says  Paul,  "  must  be 
able  to  teach,"  not  the  only  teacher,  not  necessarily 
a  teacher  at  all ;  but  a  "  minister  of  silence  as  well 
as  speech."  Inspiration  was  free  to  all  men. 
"  Quench  not  the  Spirit ;"  "  prove  all  things ;" 
"hold  fast  what  is  good;"  "covet  earnestly  the 
best  gifts,"  —  these  were  the  watch-words.  Under 
Fetichism,  all  could  consult  their  God,  and  be  in- 
spired ;  miracles  took  place  continually.  Under 
Polytheism,  only  a  few  could  come  to  God  at  first 
hand ;  they  alone  were  inspired,  and  miracles  were 
rare.  Under  Christian  Monotheism,  God  dwelt 
in  all  faithful  hearts  ;  old  covenants  and  priesthoods 
were  done  away,  and  so  all  were  inspired.^ 

The  New  Testament  was  not  written,  and  the 
Old  Testament  was  but  the  shadow  of  good  things 
to  come,  and  since  they  had  come,  the  children  of 


1  On  the  state  of  the  early  Church,  and  the  Bishops,  Elders,  and  Dea- 
cons, which  is  sti'l  a  matter  of  controversy,  see  Campbell,  Lectures  on 
Eccl.  History,  Lect.  IL-XIII.  Gieseler,  ubi  sup.  §  29.  Mosheim,  ubi 
sup.  Book  I.  Art.  H.  Chap.  IL  Neander,  Allg.  Geschichte  der  Christ- 
lichen  Religion,  Hamb.  1835,  Vol.  L  Part  I.  Chap.  IL  Gibbon,  Chap 
XV.  Schleiermacher,  Geschichte  der  Christlichen  Kirche,  Berlin,  1840, 
p.  86,  et  seq.  Among  the  modern  writers  Milman  takes  the  other  side. 
History  of  Christianity,  Lond.  1840,  Book  U.  Chap.  IL  p.  63,etseq. 


.* 


CAJN'ON  OK   SCRIPTURE.  391 

the  free  woman  wore  not  to  sit  in  the  shadow,  but 
to  stand  fast  in  tlie  liberty  wherewith  Christ  had 
made  them  free.  JVTan,  the  heir  of  all  things,  long 
time  kept  under  task-masters  and  governors,  had 
now  come  of  age  and  taken  possession  of  his  birth- 
right. The  decision  of  a  majority  of  delegates 
assembled  in  a  council,  bound  only  themselves. 

Then  the  body  of  men  and  women  worshiping 
in  any  one  place  was  subject  neither  to  its  own 
officers,  nor  to  the  church  at  large ;  nor  to  the 
Scriptures  of  the  Old  or  the  New  Testament.  No 
man  on  earth,  no  organization,  no  book  was  master 
of  the  Soul.  Each  Church  made  out  its  canon  of 
Scripture  as  well  as  it  could.  Some  of  our  canon- 
ical writings  were  excluded,  and  apocryphal  writ- 
ings used  in  their  stead.  Indeed,  respecting  this 
matter  of  Scripture,  there  has  never  been  a  uniform 
canon  among  all  Christians.  The  Bible  of  the. 
Latin  differs  from  that  of  the  Greek  Church,  and 
contains  thirteen  books  the  more.  The  Catholic 
differs  from  the  Protestant ;  the  early  Syrians  from 
their  contemporaries ;  the  Abyssinians  from  all 
other  churches,  it  seems.  The  Ebionites  would 
not  receive  the  beginning  of  Matthew  and  Luke  ; 
the  Marcionites  had  a  Gospel  of  their  own.  The 
Socinians,  and  perhaps  others,  left  off  the  whole  of 
the  Old  Testament,^  or  count  it  unnecessary.  The 
followers  of  Swedenborg  do  not  find  a  spiritual 
sense  in  all  the  books  of  the  canon.     Critics  yearly 

'  See  Faustus  Socinus,  ubi  sup.  p.  27],  ct  al. 


392  CORRUPTIONS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

make  inroads  upon  the  canon,  striking  out  whole 
books  or  obnoxious  passages,  as  not  genuine.  In 
the  first  ages  of  Christianity,  the  Bible  was  a  sub- 
ordinate thing.  In  modern  times  it  has  been  made 
a  vehicle  to  carry  any  doctrine  the  expositor  sees 
fit  to  interpret  into  it.^  The  first  preachers  of 
Christianity  fell  back  on  the  authority  of  Jesus  ; 
appealed  to  the  moral  sense  of  mankind  ;  applied 
the  doctrines  of  Christianity  to  life  as  well  as  they 
could,  and  with  much  zeal,  and  some  superstition 
and  many  mistakes,  developed  the  practical  side  of 
Christianity  much  more  than  its  theoretical  side. 

But  even  in  the  Apostles,  Christianity  had  lost 
somewhat  of  its  simplicity.  It  was  not  the  perfect 
Religion  and  Morality  coming  from  the  absolute 
source,  and  proceeding  by  the  absolute  method  to 
the  absolute  end.  It  is  taught  on  the  authority  of 
Christ.  The  Jews  must  believe  he  was  the  Mes- 
siah of  the  prophets.  "  Salvation  "  is  connected 
with  a  belief  in  his  person.  "  Neither  is  there  sal- 
vation by  any  other,"  says  Peter  in  a  different  sense 
from  the  words,  "No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father 
but  by  me."  The  Jewish  doctrine  of  "  Redemp- 
tion" and  reconciliation  by  sacrifice  appear  more  or 
less  in  the  genuine  works  of  the  Apostles,  and  very 
clearly  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  We  may 
explain  some  of  the  obnoxious  passages  as  "  figures 
of  speech,"  referring  to  the  "  Christ  born  in  us  ;  " 
but  a  fair  interpretation  leaves  it  pretty  certain  the 

'  See,  on  this  point,  some  ingenious  remarks  of  Hegel,  Philosophie 
der  Religion,  Vol.  I.  p.  29,  et  seq. 


,# 


CORRUPTIONS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  393 

writers  added  somewhat  to  the  absolute  Religion, 
though  they  did  not  share  the  gross  doctrines  often 
taught  in  their  name.  Christ  is  in  some  measure 
a  mythological  being,  even  with  Paul ;  he  was  with 
the  Jews  in  the  desert,  and  assisted  at  the  creation. 
The  Pharisaic  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
body  appears  undeniably  ;  a  local  heaven  and  a  day 
of  judgment,  in  which  Jesus  is  to  appear  in  person 
and  judge  the  world,  are  taught  very  clearly.  The 
fourth  gospel  speaks  of  Jesus  as  he  never  speaks  of 
himself;  the  Platonic  doctrine  of  the  Logos  appears 
therein.  We  may  separate  the  apostolic  doctrine 
into  three  classes  :  The  Judaizing,  the  Alexan- 
drine, and  the  Pauline,  each  differing  more  or  less 
essentially  from  the  absolute  Religion  of  the  ser- 
mon on  the  mount.^  Already  with  the  Apostles 
Jesus  has  become  in  part  deified,  his  personality 
confounded  with  the  infinite  God.  Was  it  not  be- 
cause  of  the  very  vastness  and  beauty  of  soul  that 
was  in  him  ?  The  private  and  peculiar  doctrines 
of  the  early  Christians  appear  in  strange  contrast 
with  the  gentle  precepts  of  love  to  man  and  God, 
in  which  Jesus  sums  up  the  essentials  of  Religion. 
But,  alas,  what  is  positive  and  peculiar  in  each  form 
of  worship,  is  of  little  value  ;  the  best  things  are  the 
commonest,  for  no  man  can  lay  a  new  foundation, 
nor  add  to  the  old,  more  than  the  wood,  hay  and 
stubble  of  his  own  folly.     The  great  excellence  of 

'  The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  and  the  earher  Apocrj'phal  Gospels  and 
Epistles  are  valuable  monumenis  of  the  opinions  of  the  Christians  at  the 
time  they  were  written. 
50 


394  THE   CLERGY   IN   THE   CHURCH. 

Jesus  was  in  restoring  natural  Religion  and  Moral- 
ity to  their  true  place  ;  an  excellence  which  even 
the  Apostles  but  poorlj  understood.^ 

In  their  successors  Christianity  was  a  very  differ- 
ent thing,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  —  alas 
a  very  few,  —  it  appeared  in  the  mass  of  the 
Churches,  an  idle  mummery ;  a  collection  of  forms 
and  superstitious  rites.  Heathenism  and  Judaism, 
with  all  sorts  of  superstitious  absurdities  in  their 
train,  came  into  the  Church.  The  first  fifteen 
bishops  of  Jerusalem  clung  to  the  most  obnoxious 
feature  of  Judaism.  Christianity  was  the  stalking- 
horse  of  ambition.  A  man  stepped  at  once  from 
the  camp  to  the  Bishop's  mitre,  and  brought  only 
the  piety  of  the  Roman  Legion  into  the  Church. 
The  doctrine  of  many  a  Christian  writer  was  less 
pure  and  beautiful  than  the  faith  of  Seneca  and 
Cicero,  not  to  name  Zoroaster  and  Socrates.  After 
a  couple  of  centuries  there  was  a  distinction  be- 
tween clergy  and  laity.  The  former  became 
"  Lords  over  God's  heritage,"  not  "  ensamples  unto 
the  flock."  They  were  masters  of  the  doctrine ; 
could  bind  and  loose  on  earth  and  in  heaven.  The 
majority  in  a  council  bound  the  minority,  and  the 
voices  of  the  clergy  determined  what  was  "  the  mind 
of  the  Lord."  Thus  the  clergy  became  the  Church, 
and  were  set  above  Reason  and  Conscience  in  the 
individual  soul.     They  were  chosen  by  themselves, 

1  See  the  impartial  remarks  of  Schlosser  respecting  the  origin  and 
subsequent  fate  of  Christianity,  in  his  Geschichte  der  alten  Welt,  Vol. 
III.  Pt.  I.  p.  24!)-274,  Pt.  II.  p.  110-129,  381-41G. 


A   RITUAL   WORSHIP.  395 

and  responsible  to  none  on  earth.  Private  inspira- 
tion was  reckoned  dangerous.  Freedom  of  con- 
science was  forbidden  ;  he  who  denied  the  popular 
faith  was  accursed.  The  organization  of  the  Church 
was  then  taken  from  the  Jewish  temple,  not  the 
synagogue.  The  minister  was  a  priest,  and  stood 
between  God  and  the  people  ;  the  Bishop,  an  high- 
priest  after  the  order  of  Aaron,  his  kingdom  of  this 
world.  He  was  the  "  Successor  of  the  Apostles  ;  " 
the  Viceirerent  of  Christ.  Men  came  to  the  cleri- 
cal  office  with  no  Christian  qualification.^  Baptism 
atoned  for  all  sins,  and  was  sometimes  put  off  till 
the  last  hour,  that  the  Christian  might  give  full 
swing  to  the  flesh,  and  float  into  heaven  at  last  on 
the  lustral  waters  of  baptism.  Bits  of  bread  from 
the  "  Lord's  table,"  were  a  talisman  to  preserve 
the  faithful  from  all  dangers  by  sea  and  land. 
Prayers  were  put  up  for  the  dead  ;  the  cross  was 
worshiped ;  the  bones  of  the  martyrs  could  work 
miracles;  cast  out  devils;  calm  a  tempest,  and 
even  raise  the  dead.  The  Eucharist  was  forced 
into  the  mouths  of  children  before  they  could  say, 
"  my  father,  and  my  mother."  The  sign  of  the 
cross  and  the  "  sacred  oil "  were  powerful  as 
Canidia's  spell.  In  point  of  toleration  the  human 
race  went  backward  for  a  time,  far  behind  the 
Athenians  and  men  of  Rome.^    The  clergy  assumed 


'  The  histories  of  Synesius  and  Ambrose  afford  a  striking  picture  of  the 
clerical  class  in  their  time. 

*  See  the  writings  of  Tertullian  and  Cyprian,  passim,  for  proofs  of 
this. 


396  NUMBERS  NO  TEST  OF  TRUTH. 

power  over  Conscience  ;  power  to  admit  to  Heaven, 
or  condemn  to  hell ;  and  not  only  decided  in  matters 
of  mummery,  whereof  they  made  "  divine  service  " 
to  consist,  but  decreed  what  men  should  believe  in 
order  to  obtain  eternal  life ;  an  office  the  sublimest 
of  all  the  sons  of  men  —  modest  because  he  was 
great  —  never  took  upon  himself.  They  collected 
the  writings  of  the  New  Testament,  and  decided 
what  should  be  the  "  Standard  of  Faith,"  and  what 
not.  But  their  canon  was  arbitrary,  including 
some  spurious  books  of  small  value,  and  rejecting 
others  more  edifying.  However,  they  allowed  some 
latitude  in  the  interpretation  of  the  works  they  had 
canonized.  But  next  they  went  farther,  and  de- 
veloped systematically  the  doctrines  of  the  Scrip- 
ture, on  points  deemed  the  most  important,  such  as 
the  "  nature  of  God "  and  Christ.  Thus  the 
"  mind  of  the  Lord "  was  determined  and  laid 
down,  so  that  he  might  read  that  ran.  The  mys- 
ticism of  Plato,  and  the  subtleties  of  the  Stagirite 
afforded  matter  for  the  pulpits  and  councils  to  dis- 
cuss. 

This  method  of  deciding  dark  questions  by  plu- 
rality of  votes  has  always  been  popular  in  Christen- 
dom. In  some  things  the  majority  are  always  right ; 
in  some  always  wrong.  The  four  hundred  prophets 
of  Baal  have  a  "  lying  spirit"  in  them.  Micaiah 
alone  is  in  the  right.  The  college  of  Padua,  and 
the  Sorbonne  would  have  voted  down  Galileo  and 
Newton,  a  hundred  to  one,  but  what  then  ?  Majority 
of  voices  proves  little  in  morals  or  mathematics.     A 


.* 


SIN   IN  THE  CHURCH.  397 

single  man  in  Jerusalem  on  a  certain  time  had  more 
moral  and  religious  truth  than  Herod  and  the  San- 
liedrim.  Synods  of  Dort  and  assemblies  of  Divines 
settle  nothing  but  their  own  opinions,  which  will 
be  reversed  the  next  century,  or  stand,  as  now,  a 
snare  to  the  conscience  of  pious  men. 

In  the  early  times  of  Christianity,  the  teachers 
in  general  were  men  of  little  learning,  imbued  with 
the  prejudices  and  vain  philosophies  of  the  times  ; 
men  with  passions,  some  of  them  quite  untamed, 
notwithstanding  their  pious  zeal.  In  the  first  cen- 
tury no  eminent  man  is  reckoned  among  the  Chris- 
tians. But  soon  doctrines,  that  played  a  great 
part  in  the  heathen  worship,  and  which  do  not  ap- 
pear in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  w  ere  imposed  upon 
men,  on  pain  of  damnation  in  two  w^orlds.  They 
are  not  yet  extinct.  Rites  were  adopted  from  the 
same  source.  The  scum  of  idolatry  covered  the 
well  of  living  water.  The  Flesh  and  the  Devil  sat 
down  at  the  "  Lord's  Table "  in  the  Christian 
church,  and  with  forehead  unabashed,  pushed  away 
the  worthy  bidden  guest.  What  passed  for  Chris- 
tianity in  many  churches  duiing  the  fourth  and  a 
large  part  of  the  third  century  was  a  vile  supersti- 
tion. The  image  of  Christ  was  marred.  Men  paid 
God  in  Ceesar's  pence.  The  shadows  of  great 
men,  Pythagoras,  Socrates,  Plato  ;  yes,  the  shades 
of  humbler  men,  of  name  unknown  to  fame,  might 
have  come  up,  disquieted  like  Samuel,  from  their 
grave,  and  spit  upon  the  superstition  of  the  Chris- 


398  THE  WORLD  MOVES   SLOW. 

tians  defiling  Persia,  and  Athens,  and  Rome.  It 
deserved  the  mockery  it  met.  Christianity  was 
basely  corrupted  long  before  it  gained  the  Roman 
Palace.  Had  it  not  been  corrupted,  when  would  it 
have  reached  king's  courts  ;  in  the  time  of  Constan- 
tine,  or  of  Louis  XIV.  ?  The  quarrels  of  the 
Bishops ;  the  contentions  of  the  councils  ;  the  su- 
perstition of  the  laymen  and  the  despotism  and 
ambition  of  the  clergy ;  the  ascetic  doctrine  taught 
as  morality ;  the  monastic  institutions  with  their  plan 
of  a  divine  life,  are  striking  signs  of  the  times,  and 
contrast  wonderfully  with  that  simple  Nazarene  and 
his  lowly  obedience  to  God  and  manly  love  of  his 
brothers. 

Yet  here  and  there  were  men  who  fed  with  faith 
and  works  the  flame  of  piety,  which,  rising  from 
their  lowly  hearth,  streamed  up  towards  heaven, 
making  the  shadows  of  superstition  and  of  sin  look 
strange  and  monstrous  as  they  fell  on  many  a  rood 
of  space.  These  were  the  men  who  saved  the 
Sodom  of  the  church.  Did  Christianity  fail  ?  The 
Christianity  of  Christ  is  not  one  thing  and  human 
nature  another.  It  is  h[iman  Virtue,  human  Reli- 
gion, man  in  his  highest  moments ;  the  eflect  no 
less  than  the  cause  of  human  development,  and  can 
never  fail  till  man  ceases  to  be  man.  Under  all  this 
load  of  superstition  the  heart  of  faith  still  beat. 
How  could  the  world  forget  its  old  institutions,  riot 
and  sin  in  a  moment  ?  It  is  not  thus  the  dull  fact 
of  the  world's  life  yields  to  the  divine  idea  of  a 
man.     The  rites  of  the  public  worship ;  the  clerical 


POWER  OF  PERSECUTION.  399 

class ;  the  stress  laid  on  dogmas  and  forms ;  all  this 
was  a  tribute  to  the  indolence  and  sensuality  of  man- 
kind. The  asceticism,  celibacy,  mortification  of 
the  body,  contempt  of  the  present  life  ;  the  hatred 
of  an  innocent  pleasure  ;  the  scorn  of  literature, 
science  and  art,  —  these  are  the  natural  reaction  of 
mankind,  who  had  been  bid  to  fill  themselves  with 
merely  sensual  delight.  The  lives  of  Mark  Antony, 
Sallust,  Crassus  ;  of  Julius  Caesar,  Nero  and  Domi- 
tian  explain  the  origin  of  asceticism,  and  monastic 
retirement  better  than  folios  will  do  it.  The  wri- 
tings of  Petronius  Arbiter,  of  Apuleius  and  Lucian, 
render  necessary  the  works  of  Tertullian,  Cyprian, 
Jerome,  and  John  of  Damascus.  Individuals  might 
come  all  at  once  out  of  Egyptian  darkness  into  the 
light  of  absolute  Religion,  but  the  world  moves  slow, 
and  oscillates  from  one  extreme  to  the  opposite.^ 
For  a  time  the  leaven  of  Christianity  seemed  lost 
in  the  lump  of  human  sin  ;  but  it  was  doing  its 
great  work  in  ways  not  seen  by  mortal  eyes.  The 
most  profound  of  all  revolutions  must  require  centu- 
ries for  its  work.  The  good  never  dies.  The  Per- 
secutions directed  by  tyrannical  emperors  against 
the  new  faith,  only  helped  the  work.  What  is 
written  in  blood  is  widely  read  and  not  soon  forgot. 
Could  the  "  holy  alliance  "  of  Ease,  Hypocrisy,  and 
Sin  put  down  Christianity,  which  proclaimed  the 
One  God,  the  equality  and  brotherhood  of  all  men  ? 

'  But  see  how  reluctantly  Syncsius  comes  to  the  duties  of  a  bishop. 
Ep.  105,  cited  in  Hampden,  Bampton  Lectures.  Lend.  1837,  p.  407, 
et  seq. 


400  THE  CHRISTIANITY  OF  CHRIST, 

Did  Force  ever  prevail  in  the  long  run  against 
Reason  or  Religion  ?  The  ashes  of  a  Poljcarp  and 
a  Justin  sow  the  earth  for  a  Cadmean  harvest  of 
heroes  of  the  soul ;  a  man  leaving  wife  and  babes 
and  djing  a  martyr's  death  —  this  is  an  eloquence 
the  dullest  can  understand.  If  a  fire  is  to  spread 
in  the  forest  let  all  the  winds  blow  upon  it.  Even 
a  bad  thing  is  not  put  down  by  abuse.  However, 
to  see  the  earnest  of  that  vast  result  Christianity  is 
destined  to  work  out  for  the  nations,  we  must  not 
look  at  kings'  courts,  in  Byzantium  or  Paris  ;  not  in 
the  chairs  of  bishops,  noble  or  selfish ;  not  at  the 
martyr's  firmness  when  his  flesh  is  torn  ofi",  for  the 
unflinching  Tuscarora  surpasses  "  the  noble  army 
of  martyrs  "  in  fortitude  ;  but  in  the  common  walks 
of  life,  its  every  day  trials  ;  in  the  sweet  charities 
of  the  fireside  and  the  street ;  in  the  self-denial  that 
shares  its  loaf  with  the  distressful ;  the  honest  heart 
that  respects  others  as  itself.  Looking  deeper  than 
the  straws  of  the  surface  we  see  a  stream  of  new 
life  is  in  the  world,  and,  though  choked  with  mud, 
not  to  be  dammed  up. 

The  history  of  Christianity  reveals  the  majestic 
preeminence  of  its  earthly  founder.  In  him  it  is 
noon-day  light,  absolute  Religion ;  no  less ;  no 
more.  Come  to  the  later  times  of  the  Apostles, 
the  sky  is  overcast  and  doubtful  twilight  begins. 
Take  another  step  and  the  darkness  deepens.  Come 
down  to  Justin  Martyr,  it  is  deeper  still ;  to  Ireiiceus, 
Tertullian,  Cyprian  ;  to  the  times  of  the  Council 
of  Nice  ;   read  the   letters   of  Ambrose,    Jerome, 


A^D  OF   HIS  FOLLOWERS.  401 

Augustine,  the  Apologies  of  Christianity,  the  fierce 
bickerings  of  strong  men  about  matters  of  no  mo- 
ment,—  we  should  think  it  the  midnight  of  the 
Christian  church,  did  we  not  know  that  after  this 
"  woe  was  past,"  there  came  another  woe  ;  that 
there  was  a  refuge  of  lies  remaining  where  the  black- 
ness of  darkness  fell,  and  the  shadow  of  death  lin- 
gered long  and  would  not  be  lifted  up. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  the  painful  task  of 
tracing  the  obvious  decline  of  Christianity,  and  its 
absorption  in  the  organization  of  the  church,  which 
assumed  tlie  Keys  of  Heaven,  and  bound  and  tor- 
tured men  on  earth.  It  is  beautiful  to  see  the  free- 
dom of  Paul,  —  a  man  to  whom  the  world  owes 
so  much,^  —  and  the  happy  state  of  the  earlier 
churches ;  when  no  one  controlled  another,  except 
by  Wisdom  and  Love  ;  when  each  was  his  own 
priest,  with  no  middle-man  to  forestall  inspiration, 
and  stand  between  him  and  God  ;  when  each  could 
come  to  the  Father,  and  get  truth  at  first-hand  if  he 
would.  Christ  broke  every  yoke,  but  new  yokes 
were  soon  made,  and  in  his  name.  He  bade  men 
pray  as  he  did  ;  with  no  mediator,  nothing  between 
them  and  the  Father  of  all  ;  making  each  place  a 
temple  and  each  act  a  divine  service.  With  the 
doctrines  of  absolute  Religion  on  their  tongue  ;  the 
example  of  Jesus  to  stimulate  and  encourage  them  ; 
the  certain  conviction  that  Truth  and  God  were  on 


'  See  some  remarks  on  his  character  and  influence  in  the  Dial,  for  Jan. 
1842,  p.  303,  et  seq. 
51 


402  INTRODUCTIOJN   OF  THE  CLERGY. 

their  side  ;  going  into  the  world  of  men  sick  of 
their  worn-out  rituals,  and  hungering  and  thirsting 
after  a  religion  they  could  confide  in,  live  and  die 
by  ;  having  stout  hearts  in  their  bosoms  which  dan- 
ger could  not  daunt,  nor  gold  bribe,  nor  contempt 
shame,  nor  death  appall,  nor  friends  seduce  —  no 
wonder  the  Apostles  prevailed  !  An  earnest  man, 
even  in  our  times,  coming  in  the  name  of  Religion, 
speaking  its  word  of  fire,  and  appealing  to  what  is 
deepest  and  divinest  in  our  heart,  never  lacks  au- 
ditors, though  a  rude  man  like  Bohme,  and  Bunjan, 
and  Fox.  No  wonder  the  Apostles  conquered  the 
world.  It  were  a  miracle  if  they  had  not  put  to 
flight  "  armies  of  the  aliens,"  the  makers  of  "  silver 
shrines,"  and  "  them  that  sold  and  bought  in  the 
temple."  Man  moves  man  the  world  round,  and 
Religion  multiplies  itself  as  the  Banian  tree.  Men 
with  all  the  science  of  the  nineteenth  century,  but 
no  Religion,  can  scarce  hold  a  village  together,  while 
every  religious  fanatic,  from  Mahomet  to  Mormon, 
finds  followers  plenty  as  flowers  in  summer,  and 
true  as  steel.     Can  no  man  divine  the  cause  ? 

Blessed  was  the  Christian  church  while  all  were 
brothers.  But  soon  as  the  Trojan  Horse  of  an 
organized  priesthood  was  dragged  through  the  rup- 
tured wall,  there  came  out  of  it,  stealthily,  men 
cunning  as  Ulysses,  cruel  as  Diomed,  arrogant  as 
Samuel,  exclusive  and  jealous,  armed  to  the  teeth 
in  the  panoply  of  worldliness.  The  little  finger  of 
the  Christian  priesthood  was  found  thicker  than  the 
loins  of  their  fathers  —  the  flamens  of  Jupiter,  Qui- 


CHRISTIAJNITY  AND  THE  WORLD.  403 

rinus,  tlie  Levitical  priests  oi'  Jcliovali.  Then  Ue- 
lict'  began  to  take  the  phice  of  Life  ;  the  priest  of 
the  man  ;  the  church  of  home  ;  the  Fk^sii  and  the 
Devil,  of  the  Word  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  Divine 
service  was  mcclianlsm;  Religion  priestcraft ;  Chris- 
tianity a  thing  for  kings  to  swear  by,  and  to  help 
priests  to  wealth  and  fame.  But  a  seed  remained 
that  never  bowed  the  knee  to  the  idol.  Righteous 
men,  they  are  cursed  by  the  church,  and  blessed  by 
the  God  of  Truth.  We  are  to  blame  no  class  of 
men,  neither  the  learned  who  were  hostile  to  Chris- 
tianity, nor  the  priests  who  assumed  this  power  for 
the  loaves  and  fishes'  sake  ;  they  were  men,  and  did 
as  others,  with  their  light  and  temptations,  would 
have  done.  Tiooking  with  human  eyes,  it  is  not 
possible  to  see  how  the  evil  could  have  been  avoided. 
The  wickedness  long  entrenched  in  the  world  ; 
that  under-current  of  sin  which  runs  through  the 
nations  ;  the  low  civilization  of  the  race  ;  the  self- 
ishness of  strong  men,  their  awful  wars ;  the  hid- 
eous sins  of  slavery,  polygamy  ;  the  oppression  of 
the  weak ;  the  power  of  lust,  brutality,  and  every 
sin,  —  these  W'ere  obstacles  that  even  Christianity 
could  not  sweep  away  in  a  moment,  though  strong- 
est of  the  daughters  of  God.  Men  could  sail 
safely  for  some  years  in  the  light  of  Jesus,  though 
seen  more  and  more  dimly.  But  as  the  stream  of 
time  swept  them  farther  down,  and  the  cold  shadow 
came  over  them  anew,  they  felt  the  darkness.  Let 
us  judge  these  men  lightly.  Low  as  the  church 
was  in  the  third,  fourth,  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  it 


"404  A  TRUTH  IN  THE  CHURCH. 

yet  represented  the  best  interests  of  mankind  as  no 
other  institution.  Individuals  but  not  societies  rose 
above  it,  and  soared  away  to  the  Heaven  of  peace, 
amid  its  cry  of  excommunication.  Let  us  give  the 
church  its  due. 

Now^  as  no  institution  exists  and  claims  the 
unforced  homage  of  men  unless  it  have  some  real 
ex  ellence,  in  virtue  of  which  alone  it  holds  its 
place,  being  hindered,  not  helped  by  the  error, 
falsity  and  sin,  connected  therewith ;  and  since  the 
church  has  always  stood,  in  spite  of  its  faults,  and 
filled  such  a  place  in  human  affairs  as  no  other  in- 
stitution, it  becomes  us  to  look  for  the  Idea  it  repre- 
sents, knowing  there  must  be  a  great  truth  to  stand 
so  long,  extend  so  wide,  and  uphold  so  much  that 
is  false. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE    FUNDAMENTAL  AND    DISTINCTIVE    IDEA    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN 
CHURCH DIVISION    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    SECTS. 

All  religions  have  this  common  point,  an  ac- 
knoicledged  sense  of  dependence  on  God,  and  each 
religion  has  some  special  peculiarity  of  its  own, 
which  distinguishes  it  from  all  others.  Now  the 
essential  peculiarity  of  Christianity  is  indeed  its 
absolute  character,  but  the  formal  and  theoretic 
peculiarity,  which  contradistinguishes  it  from  all 
other  religions,  is  this  doctrine ;  that  God  has  made 
the  highest  revelation  of  himself  to  m.an  through 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  This  doctrine  —  which  does 
not  proceed  from  the  absolute  character,  but  from 
the  historical  origin  of  Christianity  —  is  the  com- 
mon ground  on  which  all  Christian  sects,  the  Cath- 
olic and  the  Quaker,  the  Anabaptist,  the  Rationalist 
and  the  Mormonite,  are  agreed.  But  as  this  is 
logically  affirmed  by  all  theoretical  Christians,  it  is 
as  loo-icallv  denied  bv  all  not-theoretical  Christians. 
Thus  the  Jews  and  Mahometans,  think  their  pro- 
phets superior  to  Jesus.     When  we  find  a  man  who 


406  IDEA  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

is  an  higher  "  incarnation  of  God  ;"  one  who 
teaches  and  lives  out  more  of  Religion  and  morality 
than  Jesus,  we  are  bound  to  admit  that  fact,  and 
then  cease  to  he  theoretical  Christians.  Men  may 
now  be  essential  and  practical  Christians,  if  they 
regard  Christianity  as  the  absolute  Religion,  and 
live  it  out,  or  live  the  absolute  Rc^ligion,  and  give  it 
no  name,  though  not  theoretical  Christians. 

This  distinctive  doctrine  of  Christianity  appears 
in  various  forms  in  the  different  sects.  Thus  some 
call  Jesus  the  Infinite  God;  others  the  Jirst  of 
created  beings;  others  a  miraculous  being  of  a 
mixed  nature,  and  hence  a  God-man,  the  identity 
of  man  and  God ;  others  still,  a  mortal  man,  the 
most  perfect  representation  of  Goodness  and  Religion. 
These  may  all  be  regarded,  excepting  the  last,  as 
more  or  less  mythological  statements  of  this  distinc- 
tive doctrine. 

Now  if  Christianity  as  the  absolute  Religion,  with 
this  theoretical  peculiarity,  be  developed  in  a  man,  it 
has  an  influence  on  all  his  active  powers.  It  affects 
the  Mind,  he  makes  a  Theologv  ;  the  Conscience, 
he  lives  a  divine  life ;  the  Imagination,  he  de- 
vises a  symbol,  rite,  penance,  or  ceremony.  The 
Theology,  the  Life  and  the  Symbol,  must  depend 
on  the  natural  endowments,  and  artificial  culture  of 
the  individual  Christian,  and  as  both  gifts  and  the 
development  thereof  differ  in  different  men,  it  is  plain 
that  various  sects  must  naturally  be  formed,  each 
of  which,  setting  out  from  the  first  principle  common 
to  all  religions,  and  embracing  the  great  theoretical 


CHRISTIAN  PARTIES.  407 

doctrine  of  Christianity  —  a\  Iiicli  cVistingnishes  it 
iVoin  all  not-Christian  relif2;ions  —  has  besides,  a 
certain  peculiar  doctrine  of  its  own  which  separates 
it  from  all  otlun-  Christian  sects.  These  sects  are 
the  necessary  forms  Religion  takes  in  connection 
w  ith  the  varvino  condition  of  men.  The  Christian 
church  as  a  whole  is  made  up  of  these  parties,  all  of 
whom,  taken  together,  w^th  their  Theologies,  Life 
and  Symbols,  represent  the  amount  of  absolute  Re- 
ligion which  has  been  developed  in  Christendom,  in 
the  speculative,  practical,  or  aesthetic  way.  To  un- 
derstand the  Christian  church,  therefore,  we  must 
understand  each  of  its  parties,  their  truth  and  error, 
their  virtue  and  vice,  and  then  form  an  appreciation 
of  the  whole  matter. 

In  making  the  estimate,  however,  we  may  neglect 
such  portions  of  the  Christian  church  as  have  had  no 
influence  on  the  present  development  of  Christianity 
amongst  us.  Thus  we  need  not  consider  the  Greek 
and  Oriental  churches  after  the  sixth  century,  as 
their  influence  upon  Christianity  ceased  to  be  con- 
siderable, in  consequence  of  the  superior  practical 
talents  of  the  Western  church.  The  remaining  por- 
tions may  be  classified  in  various  ways ;  but,  for  the 
present  purpose,  the  following  seems  the  best  ar- 
rangement, namely  : 

I.  The  Catholic  Party. 
II.  The  Protestant  Party. 

III.  Those  neither  Catholics  nor  Protest- 
ants. 

These  three  will  be  treated  each  in  its  turn. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE     CATHOLIC     PARTY. 


The  Catholic  church  is  the  oldest,  and  in  num- 
bers still  the  most  powerful  of  all  Christian  organi- 
zations. It  grew  as  the  Christian  spirit  extended 
among  the  ruins  of  the  old  world,  by  the  might  of 
the  truth  borne  in  its  bosom,  overpowering  the  old 
worship,  the  artifice  of  priests,  the  selfishness  of 
the  affluent,  the  might  of  the  strong,  the  cherished 
forms  of  a  thousand  years,  the  impotent  armies  of 
purple  kings.  It  arose  from  small  beginnings.  No 
one  knows  who  first  brought  Christianity  to  Rome ; 
nor  who  planted  the  seed  of  that  hierarchic  power 
which  soon  became  a  tree,  and  at  length  a  whole 
forest,  stretching  to  the  world's  end,  enfolding 
chapels  for  the  pious,  and  dens  for  robbers.  The 
practical  spirit  of  old  Rome  came  into  the  church. 
Its  power  grew  as  Christian  freedom  declined. 
The  mantle  of  that  giant  genius,  which  made  the 
seven-hilled  city  conqueror  of  the  world  ;  the  belt 
of  power  which  girt  the  loins  of  her  mighty  men, 
Fabius,  Regulus,  Cicero,  Caesar,  passed  to  the 
Christian    bishops,    as    that    genius    f\ed    from  the 


GREEK  AND   LATIN   CHURCH.  409 

earth,  howling  over  his  crumbkHl  work.  The  spirit 
of  those  ancient  heroes  came  into  the  church  ;  tlieir 
practical  skill  ;  their  obstinate  endurance  ;  their 
power  of  speech  Avith  words  like  battles  ;  their 
lust  of  power;  their  resolution  which  nothing  could 
overturn,  or  satisfy.  The  Greek  Christians*  were 
philosophic,  literary ;  they  could  sling  stones  at  a 
hair's-breadth.  In  the  early  times  they  had  all  the 
advantage  of  position ;  "  the  chairs  of  the  apos- 
tles;" the  Christian  scriptures  written  in  their 
tongue.  Theirs  were  the  great  names  of  the  first 
centuries,  Polycarp,  Justin,  the  Clements,  Origen, 
Eusebius,  Athanasius,  Basil,  the  Gregories,  Chry- 
sostom.  But  the  Latin  church  had  the  practical 
skill,  the  soul  to  dare,  and  the  arm  to  execute. 
The  power  of  the  Roman  church  therefore  ad- 
vanced step  by  step.  Its  chiefs  were  dexterous 
men,  with  the  coolness  of  Caesar,  and  the  zeal  of 
Hannibal.  Ambrose,  Jerome,  Augustine,  would  have 
been  great  men  anywhere  ;  in  the  court  of  Sarda- 
napalus,  or  a  college  of  Jesuits.  They  brought  the 
w^orld  into  the  church.  'T  was  the  world's  gain,  but 
the  church's  loss.  The  emperor  soon  learned  to 
stoop  his  conquering  eagles  to  the  spiritual  power, 
which  shook  the  capitol.  The  church  held  divided 
sway  with  him.  The  spiritual  sceptre  was  wrested 
from  his  hands.  Constantine  fled  to  Byzantium  as 
much  to  escape  the  Latin  clergy  as  to  defend  him- 
self from  the  warriors  of  the  North. ^ 

'  See  the  external  causes  of  the  superiority  of  the  Roman  church,  in 
Rehm,  Geschichte  des  Mittelalters,  Vol.  I.  p.  510,  et  seq. 
52 


410  IDEA  OF  THE  CATHOLICS. 

Now  the  Catholic  church,  held  to  the  first  truths 
of  Relio;ion  and  of  Christianity,  as  before  shown. 
Its  ])ecnliar  and  distinctive  doctrine  was  this,  that 
God  still  acts  upon  and  inspires  mankind,  being  in 
some  measure  immanent  therein.  This  doctrine  is 
broad  enough  to  cover  the  world,  powerful  enough 
to  annihilate  the  arrogance  of  any  church.  But 
the  Roman  party  limited  this  doctrine  by  adding, 
that  God  did  not  act  by  a  natural  law,  directly  on 
the  mind,  heart  and  soul  of  each  man,  who  sought 
faithfully  to  approach  Him,  but  acted  miraculously, 
through  the  organization  of  the  church  on  its  mem- 
bers and  no  others,  and  on  them,  not  because  they 
were  men,  but  instruments  of  the  church ;  not  in 
proportion  to  a  man's  gifts,  or  the  use  of  his  gifts, 
but  as  he  stood  high  or  low  in  the  church.  The 
humblest  priest  had  a  little  inspiration,  enough  to 
work  the  greatest  of  miracles ;  the  bishop  had 
more ;  the  Pope,  as  head  of  the  church,  must  be 
infallibly  inspired,  so  that  he  could  neither  act 
wrong,  think  wrong,  nor  feel  wrong. 

Christianity  as  the  absolute  Religion  and  mo- 
rality, necessarily  sets  out  from  the  absolute  source, 
the  spirit  of  God  in  the  soul  revealing  truth.  The 
Catholic  church,  on  the  contrary,  starts  from  a  finite 
source,  the  limited  work  of  inspired  men,  namely, 
the  traditional  ivord  preserved  in  Scripture,  and  the 
unscriptural  tradition,  both  written  and  not  written. 
But  then,  laying  down  this  indisputable  truth,  that 
a  book  must  be  interpreted  by  the  same  spirit  in 
which  it  is  written,  and  therefore  that  a  book  writ- 


^* 


THF.IR  CONSISTENCY. 


411 


ten  by  miraculous  and  superhuman  inspiration  can 
be  understood  only  by  men  inspired  in  a  similar 
way,  and  limiting  the  requisite  ins})iration  to  itself, 
it  assumed  the  oflicc  of  sole  interpreter  of  the 
Scriptures  ;  refused  the  Bible  to  the  laymen,  be- 
cause they,  as  uninspired,  could  not  understand  it, 
and  gave  them  only  its  own  interpretation.  Thus 
it  attempted  to  mediate  between  mankind  and  the 
Bible. 

Then  again,  relying  on  the  unscriptural  tradition 
preserved  in  the  Fathers,  the  Councils,  the  organiza- 
tion and  memory  of  the  church,  it  makes  this  of  the 
same  authority  as  the  Scriptures  themselves,  and  so 
claims  divine  sanction  for  doctrines  which  are  nei- 
ther countenanced  by  "human  Reason,"  nor  "  di- 
vine Revelation,"  as  contained  in  the  Bible.  This 
is  a  point  of  great  importance,  as  it  will  presently 
appear. 

Now  the  Catholic  church  was  logically  consistent 
with  itself  in  both  these  pretensions.  Each  indi- 
vidual church,  at  first,  received  what  Scripture  it 
saw  fit,  and  interpreted  the  Word  as  well  as  it 
could.  Next  the  synods  decreed  for  the  mass  of 
churches,  both  the  canon  of  Scripture  and  the  doc- 
trine it  contained.  The  catholic  church  continued 
to  exercise  these  privileges.  Then  again,  taking 
the  common  notion,  the  church  had  a  logical  and 
speculative  basis  for  its  claim  to  inspiration,  though 
certainly  none  in  point  of  fact.  If  God  inspired 
Jesus  to  create  a  new  religion,  Peter,  Paul  and 
John  to  preach  it,  and  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke 


412  THE  CHURCH'S  THREE  SOURCES 

to  record  the  words  and  works  of  Christ  and  other 
Christians,  when  did  the  inspiration  cease  ?  With 
the  Apostles  or  their  successors  ;  the  direct  or  the 
remote  ?  Did  it  cease  at  all  ?  It  did  not  appear. 
Besides,  how  could  the  inspired  works  be  interpreted 
except  by  men  continually  inspired ;  how  could  the 
church,  founded  and  built  by  miraculous  action,  be 
preserved  by  the  ordinary  use  of  man's  powers  ? 
Were  Jude  and  James  inspired  and  Clement  and 
Ambrose  left  with  no  open  vision  ?  Such  a  conclu- 
sion could  not  come  from  a  comparison  of  their 
works.  Did  not  Jesus  promise  to  be  with  his 
church  to  the  end  of  the  world  ?  Here  was  the 
warrant  for  the  assumptions  of  the  catholic  party. 
So  it,  with  logical  consistency,  claimed  a  perpetual, 
miraculous  and  exclusive  inspiration,  on  just  as 
good  ground  as  it  allowed  the  claim  of  earlier  men 
to  the  same  inspiration  ;  it  made  tradition  the  mas- 
ter over  the  soul,  on  just  the  same  pretension  that 
the  Bible  is  made  the  only  certain  rule  of  faith  and 
practice.  As  the  only  interpreter  of  Scripture,  the 
exclusive  keeper  of  tradition,  as  the  vicar  of  God, 
and  alone  inspired  by  Him,  it  stood  between  man 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  Bible,  Antiquity  and  God, 
on  the  other  side.  The  church  was  sacred,  for 
God  ivas  immanent  therein ;  the  world  profane,  de- 
serted of  Deity. 

The  church  admits  three  sources  of  moral  and 
religious  truth,  namely : 

1 .  The  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  Netv  Testament 
and  Apocrypha.     It  declares  these  are  good  and 


OF  RELIGIOUS  TRUTH. 


413 


wise,  Imt  ambiguous  and  obscure,  and  by  themselves 
alone  incomplete,  not  containing  the  whole  of  the 
doctrine  and  requiring  an  inspired  expositor  to  set 
forth  their  contents. 

2.  The  unscriptiual  tradition,  oral  and  ivriiten. 
This  is  needed  to  supply  what  is  left  wanting 
through  the  imperfection  of  Scripture,  and  teach 
the  more  recondite  doctrines  of  Christianity,  such 
as  the  Trinity,  Redemption,  the  Authority  of  the 
church.  Purgatory,  Intercession,  the  use  of  Confes- 
sion, Penance  and  the  like,  and  also  to  explain  the 
Scriptures  themselves.  But  tradition  also  is  imper- 
fect, ambiguous,  full  of  apparent  contradictions,  and 
impossible  for  the  laity  to  understand,  except  through 
the  inspired  class,  who  alone  could  reconcile  its 
several  parts. 

3.  The  direct  inspiration  of  God  acting  on  the 
official  members  of  the  church  ;  that  is,  on  its  coun- 
cils, priests,  and  above  all  on  its  infallible  head. 

The  church  restricted  direct  inspiration  to  itself, 
and  even  w  ithin  the  church  the  action  of  God  was 
limited,  for  if  an  individual  of  the  clerical  order 
taught  what  was  hostile  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
church,  or  not  contained  therein,  his  inspiration  was 
referred  to  the  Devil,  not  God,  and  the  man  burned, 
not  canonized.  Thus  inspiration  was  subjected  to 
a  very  severe  process  of  verification  even  wdthin  the 
church  itself.  It  forbid  mankind  to  trust  Reason, 
Conscience,  and  the  religious  Sentiment ;  to  ap- 
proach God  through  these,  and  get  truth  at  first 
hand,  as  Moses,  Jesus  and  the  other  great  men  of 


414  MASTER  OF  THE  SOUL. 

antiquity  had  done.  For  this  the  layman  must  de- 
pend on  the  clergy,  and  the  clergyman  must  depend 
on  the  whole  church,  represented  by  the  Fathers  or 
councils,  and  idealized  in  its  head.  Thus  the  church 
was  the  judge  of  the  doctrine  and  the  practice  ;  in- 
vested with  the  Keys  of  Heaven  and  Hell ;  with 
power  to  bind  and  loose,  remit  sins,  or  retain  them, 
and  authority  to  demand  absolute  submission  from 
the  world,  or  punish  with  fagots  and  hell  men  who 
would  not  believe  as  the  church  commanded.  In 
this  way  it  would  control  private  inspiration.  But 
not  to  leave  the  heretics  hopeless,  or  drive  them  to 
violence,  it  assumes  the  right  to  restore  them,  and 
pardon  their  sins,  on  condition  of  submission  and 
penance.  The  Saviour,  the  Martyrs,  the  Saints, 
had  not  only  expiated  their  own  sins,  but  performed 
works  of  supererogation,  and  so  established  a  sink- 
ing-fund to  hquidate  the  sins  of  the  world.  This 
deposite  was  at  the  disposal  of  the  church,  who 
could  therewith  —  aided  by  the  intercession  of  the 
beatified  spirits  —  purchase  the  salvation  of  a  peni- 
tent heretic,  though  his  sins  were  as  crimson. 

The  church  assumed  mastery  over  all  souls.  The 
individual  was  nothing  ;  the  church  was  all.  Its 
power  stood  on  a  moral  basis  ;  its  authority  was 
derived  from  God.  The  humblest  priest,  in  cele- 
brating the  mass,  performed  a  miracle  greater  than 
all  the  wonders  of  Jesus,  for  he  only  changed  water 
into  wine,  and  fed  five  thousand  men  with  five 
loaves  ;  but  the  priest,  by  a  single  word,  changed 
bread  and  wine  into  the  flesh  and  blood  of  Almighty 


.f 


THE  CHURCH  AND   HERETICS.  415 

God.  It  Styles  itself  God's  vicegerent  on  earth, 
and  as  Christ  was  a  temporary  and  partial  incarna- 
tion of  the  deity,  so  itself  is  a  perfect  and  eternal 
incarnation  thereof.  Tlius  the  church  became  a 
Theocracy.  It  was  far  more  consistent  than  the 
Jewish  Theocracy,  for  that  allowed  private  inspira- 
tion, and  therefore  was  perpetually  troubled  by  the 
race  of  prophets,  who  never  allowed  the  priests 
their  own  way,  but  cried  out  with  most  rousing  in- 
dignation against  the  Levites  and  their  followers, 
and  refused  lo  be  put  down.  Besides,  the  Jewish 
Theocracy  limited  infallibility  to  God  and  the  Law, 
which  was  to  be  made  known  to  all,  and  though 
inspired  could  be  easily  understood  by  the  simple 
son  of  Israel.  It  never  claimed  that  for  the  Priest- 
hood. 

Now  there  are  but  two  scales  in  the  balance  of 
power  ;  the  Individual  who  is  ruled  and  the  Institu- 
tion that  governs,  here  represented  by  the  Church. 
Just  as  the  one  scale  rises,  the  other  falls.  The 
spiritual  freedom  of  the  individual  in  the  church  is 
contained  in  an  angle  too  small  to  be  measurable. 
Did  men  revolt  from  this  iron  rule  ?  There  was 
the  alternative  of  eternal  damnation,  for  all  men 
were  born  depraved,  exposed  to  the  wrath  of  God  ; 
their  only  chance  of  avoiding  hell  was  to  escape 
through  the  doors  of  the  church.  Thus  men  were 
morally  compelled  to  submit  for  the  sake  of  its 
"  redemption."  Did  they  throw  themselves  on  the 
mercy  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  penitent  for  their  disobe- 
dience of  the  church  ?    They  were  told  that  mercy 


416  MERITS  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

was  at  the  church's  disposal.  Did  they  make  the  ap- 
peal to  Scripture,  and  say,  as  in  Adam  all  die,  soin 
Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive  ;  that  he  had  expiated 
all  their  sins  ?  The  church  told  them  their  exe- 
gesis of  the  passage  was  wrong,  for  Christ  only 
expiated  their  inherited  sins,  not  the  actual  sin  they 
had  committed,  and  for  which  they  must  smart  in 
hell,  atone  for  in  purgatory,  or  get  pardoned  by  sub- 
mitting to  the  vicar  of  God,  and  going  through  the 
rites,  forms,  fasts  and  penances  he  should  prescribe, 
and  thus  purchase  a  share  of  the  redemption 
which  Christ  and  the  saints  by  their  works  of  su- 
pererogation had  provided  to  meet  the  case.  This 
doctrine  was  taught  in  good  faith  and  in  good  faith 
received.^ 

*         I.  The.  Merits  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

As  we  look  back  upon  the  history  of  the  church, 
and  see  the  striking  unity  of  that  institution,  we 
naturally  suppose  its  chiefs  had  a  regular  plan,  but 
such  was  not  the  fact.  The  peculiar  merit  of  the 
Catholic  church  consists  in  its  assertion  of  the 
truth,  that  God  still  inspires  mankind  as  much  as 
ever ;  that  He  has  not  exhausted  himself  in  the 
creation  of  a  Moses,  or  a  Jesus,  the  Law  or  the 


'  See,  who  will,  Rehm,  ubi  sup.  Vol  II.  p.  541,  et  seq.,  and  Vol.  III. 
p.  1,  et  seq.  for  the  political  aspect  of  the  Roman  Church.  Guizot,  Ilis- 
toire  de  la  Civilization,  &c.  Leqon  II. -VI.  X.-XII.  Hallam,  state  of 
Europe  during  the  middle  ages,  Ch.  VII.  Gibbon,  ubi  sup.,  Ch.  XV. 
XVI.  XVIII.  XXI.  Comte,  ubi  sup,.  Vol.  V.  Le<;on,  LIV.  LV.  who,  in 
some  respects,  surpasses  all  his  predecessors. 


SPIRITUAL  AND  TEMPOKAL   POWER.  417 

Gospel,  but  is  present  and  active  in  spirit  as  in 
space,  admitting  this  truth,  so  deep,  so  vital  to 
the  race  —  a  truth  preserved  in  the  religions  of 
Egypt,  Greece  and  Rome,  and  above  all  in  the 
Jewish  faith  —  clothing  itself  with  all  the  authority 
of  ancient  days ;  the  word  of  God  in  its  hands,  both 
tradition  and  Scripture  ;  believing  it  had  God's  in- 
fallible and  exclusive  inspiration  at  its  heart,  for 
such  no  doubt  was  the  real  belief,  and  actually, 
through  its  Christian  character,  combining  in  itself 
the  best  interests  of  mankind,  no  wonder  it  prevail- 
ed. Its  countenance  became  as  lightning.  It  stood 
and  measured  the  earth.  It  drove  asunder  the  na- 
tions. It  went  forth  in  the  mingling  tides  of  civ- 
ilized corruption  and  barbarian  ferocity,  for  the  sal- 
vation of  the  people,  —  conquering  and  to  conquer  ; 
its  brightness  as  the  light. 

It  separated  the  spiritual  from  the  temporal 
power,  which  had  been  more  or  less  united  in  the 
theocracies  of  India,  Egypt  and  Judea,  and  which 
can  only  be  united  to  the  lasting  detriment  of  man- 
kind. This  was  a  great  merit  in  the  church  ;  one 
that  cannot  be  appreciated  in  our  days,  for  we  have 
not  felt  the  evil  it  aimed  to  cure.  The  church,  in 
theory,  stood  on  a  basis  purely  moral ;  it  rose  in 
spite  of  the  state  ;  in  the  midst  of  its  persecutions  ; 
at  first  it  shunned  all  temporal  affairs,  and  never 
allowed  a  temporal  power  to  be  superior  to  itself. 
The  department  of  political  action  belonged  to  the 
state  ;  that  o{  intellectual  action  —  the  stablest  and 
strongest  of  power  —  to  the   church.     Hence    its 

53 


418  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

care  of  education ;  hence  the  influence  it  exerted 
on  literature.  We  read  the  letters  of  Ambrose  arid 
Augustine  and  find  a  spirit  all  unknown  to  former 
times. ^  Tertullian  could  oppose  the  whole  might  of 
the  state  with  his  pen.  That  fierce  African  did  not 
hesitate  to  expose  the  crimes  of  the  nation.  The 
Apologetists  assume  a  tone  of  spiritual  authority 
surprising  in  that  age. 

The  church  set  apart  a  speculative  class,  distinct 
from  all  others,  including  the  most  cultivated  men 
of  their  times.  It  provided  a  special  education  for 
this  class,  one  most  admirably  adapted,  in  many 
points,  for  the  work  they  were  to  do.  Piety  and 
genius  found  here  an  asylum,  a  school,  and  a  broad 
arena.  Thus  it  had  a  troop  of  superior  minds,  ed- 
ucated and  pious  men,  who  could  not  absorb  the 
political  power,  as  the  sacerdotal  class  of  India, 
Egypt  and  Judea  had  done  ;  who  could  not  be  in- 
different to  the  social  and  moral  state  of  mankind, 
as  the  priesthood  had  been  in  Greece  and  Rome. 
Theoretically,  they  were  free  from  the  despotism  of 
one,  and  the  indifference  of  the  other.  The  public 
virtue  was  their  peculiar  charge. 

Rome  was  the  city  of  organizations,  and  practi- 
cal rules.  War,  Science  and  Lust  of  old  time  had 
here  incarnated  themselves.  The  same  practical 
spirit  organized  the  church,  with  its  Dictator,  its 
Senate,  and   its   Legions.     The  discipline  of  the 

'  See  this  point  ably  though  briefly  treated  in  Schlosser,  ubi  sup.  Vol. 
Ill  Pt.  III.  p.  102-151,  and  IV.  p.  25-75.  See  also  Pt.  II.  p.  167,  et 
seq. 


CELIBACY  OF   THE  CLERGY 


419 


clerical  class,  their  union,  zeal,  and  commanding 
skill  gave  them  the  solidity  of  the  Phalanx,  and  the 
celerity  of  the  Legion.  The  church  prevailed  as 
much  by  its  organization  as  its  doctrine.  What 
could  a  band  of  loose-girt  apostles,  each  warring  on 
his  own  account,  avail  against  the  refuge  of  Lies, 
where  Strength  and  Sin  had  intrenched  themselves, 
and  sworn  never  to  yield  ?  An  organized  church 
was  demanded  by  the  necessities  of  the  time  ;  an 
association  of  soldiers  called  for  an  army  of  saints.^ 
A  sensual  people  required  forms,  the  church  gave 
them  ;  superstitious  rites,  divination,  processions, 
images,  the  church,  —  obdurate  as  steel  when  occa- 
sion demands,  but  pliant  as  molten  metal  when 
yielding  is  required  —  the  church  allows  all  this. 
Its  form  grew  out  of  the  wants  of  the  time  and 
place. 

Was  there  no  danger  that  the  priesthood,  thus 
able  and  thus  organized,  should  become  ambitious 
of  wealth  and  power  ?  The  greatest  danger  that 
fathers  should  seek  to  perpetuate  authority  for  their 
children.  But  this  class  of  men,  cut  off  from  pos- 
terity by  the  prohibition  of  marriage,  lived  in  the 
midst  of  ancient  and  feudal  institutions,  where  all 
depended  on  birth  ;  where  descent  from  a  success- 
ful pirate,  or  some  desperate  freebooter,  hard- 
handed  and  hard-hearted,  who  harried  village  after 
village,  secured  a  man  elevation,  political  power 
and  wealth  ;  the  clergy  were  cut  off  from  the  most 


'  See  Guizot  and  Cornte. 


420  CONVENTS   AND  MONASTERIES. 

powerful  of  all  inducements  to  accumulate  author- 
ity. In  that  long  period  from  Alaric  to  Columbus, 
when  the  church  had  ample  revenues  ;  the  most  able 
and  cultivated  men  in  her  ranks,  so  thoroughly  dis- 
ciplined ;  the  awful  power  over  the  souls  of  men,  far 
more  formidable  than  bayonets  skilfully  plied ;  with 
an  acknowledged  claim  to  miraculous  inspiration 
and  divine  authority,  were  it  not  for  the  celibacy  of 
the  Christian  priesthood  —  damnable  institution,  and 
pregnant  with  mischief  as  it  was  —  we  should  have 
had  a  sacerdotal  caste,  the  Levites  of  Christianity, 
whose  little  finger  would  have  been  thicker  than 
the  loins  of  all  former  Levites  ;  who  would  have 
flayed  men  with  scorpions,  where  the  priestly  des- 
pots of  Egypt  and  India  only  touched  them  with  a 
feather,  and  the  dawn  of  a  better  day  must  have 
been  deferred  for  thousands  of  years.  The  world  is 
managed  wiser  than  some  men  fancy.  "  He  mak- 
eth  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  him,  and  the  rem- 
nant of  wrath  he  will  restrain,"  said  an  old  writer. 
The  remedy  of  inveterate  evils  is  attended  with 
sore  pangs.  These  wretched  priests  of  the  middle 
ages  bore  a  burthen,  and  did  a  service  for  us,  which 
we  are  slow  to  confess. 

The  church,  reacting  against  the  sensuality  and 
excessive  publicity  of  the  heathen  world,  in  its 
establishment  of  convents  and  monasteries,  opened 
asylums  for  delicate  spirits  that  could  not  bear  the 
rage  of  savage  life  ;  afforded  a  hospital  for  men  sick 
of  the  fever  of  the  world,  worn  out  and  shattered 
in  the  storms  of  state,  who  craved  a  little  rest  for 


•  * 


POWER  OF  THE  CHURCH.  421 

charity's  sweet  sake,  before  they  went  where  the 
wicked  cease  IVom  troubling,  and  the  weary  are  at 
rest.  Among  the  sensual  the  Saint  is  always  an 
Anchorite ;  Religion  gets  as  far  as  possible  from 
the  world. ^  Rude  men  reijuire  obvious  forms  and 
sensible  shocks  to  their  roughness.  The  very  place 
where  the  Monks  prayed  and  the  Nuns  sang,  was 
sacred  from  the  ruthless  robber.  As  he  drew  near 
it,  the  tiger  was  tame  within  him  ;  the  mailed  war- 
rior kissed  the  ground,  and  Religion  awoke  for  the 
moment  in  his  heart.  The  fear  of  hell,  and  rever- 
ence for  the  consecrated  spot,  chained  up  the  devil 
for  the  time. 

Then  the  church  had  a  most  diffusive  spirit ;  it 
would  Christianize  as  fast  as  the  state  would  con- 
quer ;  its  missionaries  are  found  in  the  courts  of 
barbarian  monarchs,  in  the  caves  and  dens  of  the 
savage,  diffusing  their  doctrine  and  singing  their 
hymns.  Creating  an  organization  the  most  perfect 
the  world  ever  saw ;  with  a  policy  wiser  than  any 
monarch  ever  dreamed  of,  and  which  grew  more 
perfect  with  the  silent  accretions  of  time  ;  with 
address  to  allure  the  ambitious  to  its  high  places, 
and  so  turn  all  their  energy  into  its  deep  wide  chan- 
nel ;  with  mysteries  to  charm  the  philosophic,  and  fill 
the  fancy  of  the  rude ;  with  practical  doctrines  for 
earnest  workers,  and  subtle  questions,  always  skil- 
fully left  open  for  men  of  acute  discernment ;  with 
rites  and  ceremonies   that  addressed  every  sense, 

'  To  illustrate  this  point  see,  instar  omnium,  the  works  of  St.  Bernard. 


422  HUMANITY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

rousing  the  mind  like  a  Grecian  drama,  and  pro- 
mising a  participation  with  God  through  the  sacra- 
ment ;  with  wisdom  enough  to  bring  men  really 
filled  with  Religion  into  its  ranks ;  with  good  sense 
and  good  taste  to  employ  all  the  talent  of  the  times 
in  the  music,  the  statues,  the  painting,  the  archi- 
tecture of  the  church,  thus  consecrating  all  the  pow- 
ers of  man  to  man's  noblest  work;  with  so  much 
of  Christian  truth  as  the  world  in  its  wickedness 
could  not  forget,  —  no  wonder  the  church  spread 
wide  her  influence  ;  sat  like  a  queen  among  the  na- 
tions, saying  to  one  go,  and  it  went,  to  another 
COME,  and  it  came. 

Then,  again,  its  character,  in  theory,  was  kindly 
and  humane.  It  softened  the  asperity  of  secular 
wars  ;  forbid  them  in  its  sacred  seasons  ;  establish- 
ed its  Truce  of  God,  and  gave  a  chance  for  rage  to 
abate.  It  espoused  the  cause  of  the  people.  Com- 
ing in  the  name  of  one  "  despised  and  rejected  of 
men,"  "  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief;  "  of  a  man  born  in  an  ox's  crib,  at  his  best 
estate  not  having  where  to  lay  his  head ;  who  died 
at  the  hangman's  hand,  but  who  was  at  last  seated 
at  the  right  hand  of  God,  and  in  his  low  estate  was 
deemed  God  in  humiliation  come  down  into  the 
flesh,  to  take  its  humblest  form,  and  show  he  was 
no  respecter  of  persons,  —  the  church  did  not  fail  to 
espouse  the  cause  of  the  people,  with  whom  Chris- 
tianity found  its  first  adherents,  its  apostles  and  de- 
fenders. With  somewhat  in  its  worst  days  of  the 
spirit  of  him  who  gave  his  life  a  ransom  for  many ; 


HUMANITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.         423 

with  much  of  it  really  active  in  its  best  days  and  its 
theory  at  all  times,  tiie  church  stood  up,  for  long 
ages,  the  only  bulwark  of  freedom;  the  last  hope 
of  man  struggling  but  sinking  as  the  whelming  wa- 
ters of  barbarism  whirled  him  round  and  round.  It 
came  to  the  Baron,  haughty  of  soul,  and  bloody  of 
hand,  who  sat  in  his  cliff  tower,  as  a  hungry  raven  ; 
who  broke  the  poor  into  fragments,  ground  them 
to  powder,  and  spurned  them  like  dust  from  his 
foot ;  it  came  between  him  and  the  captive,  the 
serf,  the  slave,  the  defenceless  maiden,  and  stayed 
the  insatiate  hand.  Its  curse  blasted  as  lightning. 
Even  in  feudal  times,  it  knew  no  distinction  of 
birth  ;  all  were  "  conceived  in  sin,"  "  shapen  in 
iniquity,"  alike  the  peasant  and  the  peer.  The 
distinction  of  birth,  station,  was  apparent,  not  real. 
Yet  were  all  alike  children  of  God,  who  judged 
the  heart,  and  knew  no  man's  person ;  all  heirs  of 
Heaven,  for  whom  prophets  and  apostles  had  up- 
lifted their  voice  ;  yes,  for  whom  God  had  worn 
this  weary,  wasting  weed  of  flesh,  and  died  a  cul- 
prit's death.  Then  while  nothing  but  the  accident 
of  distinguished  birth,  or  the  possession  of  animal 
fierceness  could  save  a  man  from  the  collar  of  the 
thrall,  the  church  took  to  her  bosom  all  who  gave 
signs  of  talent  and  piety  ;  sheltered  them  in  her 
monasteries ;  ordained  them  as  her  priests  ;  wel- 
comed them  to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter ;  and  men  who 
from  birth  would  have  been  companions  of  the 
Galilean  fishermen,  sat  on  the  spiritual  throne  of  the 
world,  and   governed  with  a  majesty  which  Caesar 


424  ITS  GOOD  IJNFLUENCE. 

might  envy,  but  could  not  equal.  Priests  came  up 
from  no  Levitical  stock,  but  the  children  of  cap- 
tives and  bondmen  as  vt^ell  as  prince  and  peer. 
When  northern  barbarism  swept  over  the  ancient 
w^orld;  when  temple  and  tower  went  to  the  ground, 
and  the  culture  of  old  time,  its  letters,  science,  arts, 
were  borne  off  before  the  flood,  —  the  church  stood 
up  against  the  tide ;  shed  oil  on  its  wildest  waves  ; 
cast  the  seed  of  truth  on  its  waters,  and  as  they 
gradually  fell,  saw  the  germ  send  up  its  shoot, 
which  growing  while  men  watch  and  while  they 
sleep,  after  many  days,  bears  its  hundredfold,  a 
civilization  better  than  the  past,  and  institutions 
more  beneficent  and  beautiful. 

The  influence  of  the  church  is  perhaps  greater 
than  even  its  friends  maintain.  It  laid  its  hand  on 
the  poor  and  down-trodden  ;  they  were  raised,  fed, 
and  comforted.  It  rejected,  with  loathing,  from  its 
coffers,  wealth  got  by  extortion  and  crime.  It 
touched  the  shackles  of  the  slave,  and  the  serf  arose 
disenthralled,  the  brother  of  the  peer.  It  annihila- 
ted slavery,  which  Protestant  cupidity  would  keep 
forever.^  It  touched  the  diadem  of  a  wicked  king, 
and  it  became  a  crown  of  thorns ;  the  monarch's 

'  See,  in  Comte,  ubi  sup.  Vol.  V.  p.  407,  et  seq.,  some  Reflections  on 
the  milder  Character  of  Slavery  in  Catholic  America,  compared  with 
Slavery  in  Protestant  America  ;  and  yet  Comte  is  hardly  a  Theist.  For 
the  influence  of  Christianity  on  Slavery,  see  the  accounts  of  Paulinus, 
Deogratias,  Patiens,  and  Synesius,  in  Schlosser,  Vol.  III.  Part  III.  p.  284, 
et  seq.  Gibbon,  in  his  heartless  way,  passes  over,  with  scarce  a  notice, 
the  beautiful  spirit  Christianity  brought  into  Rome,  and  its  influence  on 
the  condition  of  slaves.  Hallam,  in  his  one-sided  appreciation  of  the 
Catholic  church,  has  done  no  more  justice  to  its  merits. 


ITS  GOOD  INFLUENCE.  426 

sceptre  was  a  broken  reed  before  the  crosier  of  the 
church.^  Its  rod,  like  the  wand  of  Moses,  swal- 
lowed up  all  hostile  rods.  Like  God  himself,  the 
church  gave,  and  took  away,  rendering  no  reason 
to  man  for  its  gifts  or  extortions.  It  sent  missiona- 
ries to  the  east  and  the  west,  and  carried  the  waters 
of  baptism  from  the  fountains  of  Nubia,  to  the 
roaring  Geysers  of  a  Northern  isle.  It  limited 
the  power  of  kings  ;  gave  religious  education  to  the 
people,  which  no  ancient  institution  ever  aimed  to 
impart ;  kept  on  its  sacred  hearth  the  smouldering 
embers  of  Greek  or  Roman  thought ;  cherished  the 
last  faint  sparkles  of  that  fne  Prometheus  brought 
from  Gods  more  ancient  than  Jove.  It  had  cere- 
monies for  the  sensual;  confessionals  for  the  pious  — 
needed  and  beautiful  in  their  time  —  labors  of  love 
for  the  true-hearted ;  pictures  and  images  to  rouse 
devotion  in  the  man  of  taste  ;  churches  whose  as- 
piring turrets  and  sombre  vaults  filled  the  kneeling 
crowd  with  awe  ;  it  had  doctrines  for  the  wise  ; 
rebukes  for  the  wicked  ;  prayers  for  the  reverent ; 
hopes  for  the  holy,  and  blessings  for  the  true.  It 
sanctified  the  babe,  newly  born  and  welcome ; 
watched  over  marriage  with  a  jealous  eye  ;  fostered 
good  morals  ;  helped  men,  even  by  its  symbols, 
to  partake  the  divine  nature ;  smoothed  the  pillow 
of  disease  and  death,  giving  the  Soul  wings,  as  it 

'  See  an  early  instance  of  the  collision  between  the  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral power,  in  the  case  of  Ambrose,  Archbishop  of  Milan,  and  the 
Queen  Justina,  in  Fleury,  ubi  sup.  Liv  XVIII.  Chap.  32,  et  seq.  ;  and 
also  in  Gibbon.  CJiap   XX  VII. 


426         MAIN  ERROR  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

were,  to  welcome  the  death-angel,  and  gently,  calmly 
pass  away.  It  assured  masculine  piety  of  its  re- 
ward in  Heaven ;  told  the  weak  and  wavering, 
the  divine  beings  would  help  him,  if  faithful.  In 
the  honors  of  canonization,  it  promised  the  most 
lasting  fame  on  earth  ;  generations  to  come  should 
call  the  good  man  a  blessed  saint,  and  his  name 
never  perish  while  the  years  went  round.  Heroism 
of  the  Soul  took  the  place  of  boldness  in  the  Flesh. 
It  did  not,  like  Polytheism,  deify  warriors  and  states- 
men—  Attila,  Theodosius,  Clovis,  their  kingdom 
was  of  this  world  —  but  it  canonized  martyrs  and 
saints,  Polycarp,  Justin,  Ambrose,  Paulinus,  Bernard 
of  Clair-vaux.^  Such  were  some  of  the  excellen- 
cies, theoretical  or  practical,  of  the  church.  This 
hasty  sketch  does  not  allow  more  particular  notice 
of  them. 

II.   The  Defects  and  Vices  of  the  Catholic  Party. 

But  the  church  had  vices,  vast  and  awful  to  the 
thought.  As  its  distinctive  excellence  was  to  pro- 
claim the  continuance  of  ins|)iration,  so  its  sacra- 
mental sin  was  in  limiting  this  inspiration  to  itself 
thus  setting  bounds  to  the  Spirit  of  God  and  the 
Soul  of  man.  Who  shall  say  to  the  Infinite  God, 
Hitherto  shah,  thou  come,  but  no  farther ;  Thou 
hast  inspired  Moses  and  Jesus,  the  Apostles,  and 

'  Canonization  among  the  Catholics  seems  to  come  from  the  same  root 
with  the  Apotheosis  of  the  Polytheists.  Both,  no  doubt,  exerted  an  in- 
fluence on  men  who  asked  a  recompense  for  being  good  and  religious. 


VlCli  OF   TUK   rillKSTHOOl).  427 

llic;  chmcli ;  well  done,  now  rest  from  thy  work, 
and  ii\)vdk  no  more,  except  as  we  prescribe  ?  The 
church  did  say  it.  The  wondrous  mechanism  of 
the  church  and  much  of  its  power  came  from  this 
false  assumption,  that  it  alone  had  the  Word  of 
God.  So  its  organization  was  based  on  a  lie,  and 
required  new  lies  to  uphold,  and  prophets  of  lies  to 
defend  it.  Its  servants,  the  })riests,  became  proud 
of  sj)irit.  Tiie  only  keepers  of  scripture  and  tradi- 
tion ;  the  only  recipients  of  inspiration,  they  forbid 
free  inquiry  as  of  no  use  ;  stifled  Conscience  as 
only  leading  men  into  trouble  ;  and  excommunica- 
ted Common  Sense,  who  asked  "  terrible  ques- 
tions," calling  for  the  title-deeds  of  the  church. 
They  went  farther,  and  forbid  the  bans  between 
Reason  and  Religion  ;  and  when  the  parties  insist- 
ed on  the  union,  turned  them  both  out  of  doors 
with  a  curse.  The  laity  must  not  approach  God, 
as  the  clergy  ;  must  only  commune  with  Him  "  in 
one  kind."  The  church  forgot  God  grants  inspira- 
tion to  no  one  except  on  condition  he  conforms  to 
the  divine  law,  living  pure  and  true,  and  grants  it 
only  in  proportion  to  his  gifts  and  his  use  thereof; 
so,  relying  on  the  ojfice  and  "  apostolical  succes- 
sion "  for  inspiration,  the  priests  lived  shameless 
and  wicked  lives,  rivalling  Sardanapalus  and  Domi- 
tian  in  their  cruelty  and  sin.  They  forgot  God 
withholds  inspiration  from  none  that  is  faithful  ;  so 
they  stoned  tlu;  prophets  who  rebuked  their  lies 
and  published  their  sin  ;  they  shamefully  entreated 
men  whom  God  sent  of  his  errands  to  these  unwor- 


428 


WORLDLINESS  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


thy  husbandmen.  They  became  spiritual  tyrants, 
forcing  all  men  to  utter  the  same  creed,  submit  to 
the  same  rite,  reverence  the  same  symbol,  and  be 
holy  in  the  same  way. 

In  its  zeal  to  separate  the  spiritual  power  from 
temporal  hands  it  took  what  was  not  its  own— power 
over  men's  bodies  ;  and  made  laws  for  the  state.^ 
In  its  haste  to  give  preeminence  to  spiritual  things,  it 
made  its  offices  a  bribe,  greater  than  the  state  could 
give.  The  honor  of  sainthood  —  what  was  the  fame 
of  king  and  conqueror  to  that  ?  It  promised  the 
honors  of  high  clerical  office,  and  even  of  canoniza- 
tion to  the  most  mercenary  and  cruel  of  men,  whose 
touch  was  pollution.  Its  list  of  saints  is  full  of 
knaves  and  despots.  The  state  was  taken  into  the 
church,  —  a  refractory  member.  The  Flesh  and 
the  Devil  were  baptized ;  "  took  holy  orders ;" 
governed  the  church  in  some  cases,  but  were  still 
the  Flesh  and  the  Devil,  though  called  by  a 
Christian  name.  That  divine  man,  whose  name  is 
ploughed  into  the  world,  said.  If  a  man  smite  the 
one  cheek,  turn  the  other  ;  but  if  a  man  lifted  his 
hand  or  his  voice  against  the  church,  —  it  blasted 
him  with  damnation  and  hell.  Christ  said  his  king- 
dom was  not  of  this  world ;  so  said  the  church  at 
first,  and  Christians  refused  to  war,  to  testify  in  the 
courts,  to  appear  in  the  theatres,  and  foul  their 
hands  with  the  world's  sin.  But  soon  as  there  was 
an  organized  priesthood,  to  defend  themselves  from 

*  See  Hallam,  ubi  supra,  Ch.  VII.  ed.  Paris,  Vol.  I.  p.  373,  et  seq. 


TYRANNY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  429 

the  tyranny  of  the  state,  to  exercise  authority  over 
the  soul  of  men,  power  on  the  earth  became  needed. 
One  lie  leads  to  many.  What  the  church  first  took 
in  self-defence  it  aftor^vards  clung  to  and  increased, 
and  was  so  taken  up  witli  its  earthly  kingdom,  it 
quite  forgot  its  patrimony  in  Heaven  ;  so  it  played  a 
double  game,  attempting  to  serve  God,  and  keep  on 
good  terms  with  the  Devil.  But  it  was  once  said, 
"  no  man  can  serve  two  masters."  Unnatural, 
spiritual  power  could  not  be  held  without  temporal 
authority  to  sustain  it ;  so  the  church  look  fleshly 
weapons  for  its  carnal  ends.  Monks  raised  armies  ; 
Bishops  led  them  ;  God  was  blasphemed  by  prayers 
to  aid  bloodshed.  The  church  sold  her  garment  to 
buy  a  sword. 

The  church  was  the  exclusive  vicar  of  God  ;  she 
must  have  "  the  tonnage  and  poundage  of  all  free- 
spoken  truth."  To  accomplish  this  end  and  estab- 
lish her  dogmas,  she  burnt  men,  beginning  with 
Priscillian  and  "  the  six  Gnostics,"  in  the  fourth 
century,  at  Tours,  and  ending  no  one  knows  where, 
or  when,  or  with  whom.^  It  had  such  zeal  for  the 
"  unity  of  the  faith,"  that  it  put  prophets  in  chains; 
asked  the  sons  of  God  if  they  were  "  greater  than 
Jacob."    It  made  Belief  take  the  place  of  Life.     It 


'  See  the  story  in  Sulpitius  Severus,  Hist.  Sac.  Lib.  II.  Ch.  50-51. 
Fleury,  ubi  supra,  Liv.  XVII.  Ch.  56,  57,  and  XVIII.  Ch.  29,  30.  The 
Pope,  St.  Leo,  commended  the  action,  but  Gregory  of  Tours,  and  Am- 
brose of  Milan  condemned  it.  Idacius  and  Ithacious,  the  two  bishops 
who  caused  the  execution,  were  expelled  from  their  office  by  the  popular 
indignation. 


430  ITS  FALSEHOOD    AND   CRIME. 

absolved  men  of  their  sins,  past,  present,  and  future. 
Emancipated  the  clergy  from  the  secular  law,  thus 
giving  them  license  to  sin.  It  sold  heaven  to  ex- 
tortioners for  a  little  gold,  and  built  St.  Peters  viath 
the  spoil.  It  wrung  ill-gotten  gains  out  of  tyrants 
on  their  death-bed  ;  devoured  the  houses  of  widows 
and  the  weak  ;  built  its  cathedrals  out  of  the  spoil 
of  orphans,  thus  literally  giving  a  stone  when  bread 
was  asked  for,  as  St.  Bernard  honestly  called  it. 
It  was  greedy  of  gold  and  power,  and  at  one  time 
had  well  nigh  half  the  lands  of  England  held  in 
mortmain.  It  absolved  men  from  oaths ;  broke 
marriages ;  told  lies  ;  forged  charters  and  decretals  ; 
burned  the  philosophers ;  corrupted  the  classics ; 
altered  the  Fathers ;  changed  the  decisions  of  the 
councils,  and  filled  Europe  with  its  falsehood.^  It 
has  fought  the  most  hideous  of  wars  ;  evangelized 
nations  with  the  sword  ;  laid  kingdoms  under  in- 
terdict to  gratify  its  pride. 

The  church  boasts  of  its  uniform  doctrine,  but  it 
changes  every  age  ;  of  its  peaceful  spirit,  but  who 
fought  the  crusades,  the  wars  of  extermination  in 
Switzerland,  France,  the  Low  Countries  ?  To  whom 
must  we  set  down  the  ecclesiastical  butchery  that 
filled  Europe  with  funeral  piles  ?  It  quarrelled  with 
the  temporal   power,  and   built  up  institutions  of 


'  See  instances  of  this  forgery  in  Hallam,  ubi  sup.  Ch.  VII.  p.  391, 
et  seq.  et  al. ;  Daille,  On  the  right  Use  of  the  Fathers,  &c  London,  1841, 
passim.  Middleton,  ubi  supra.  But  see,  on  the  side  of  the  church,  Bos- 
suet,  Defeuse  de  la  Tradition  ct  des  Saints  Peres,  and  Manzoni,  Osser- 
vazioni  suUa  Morale  Cattolica,  Firenze,  1835. 


DECLINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  431 

tyranny  to  suppress  truth;  kept  tlic  Bible  to  itself; 
made  the  Greek  Testament  a  prohibited  book ; 
brought  dead  men's  bones  into  the  churches,  for  the 
living  to  worship,  and  worked  lying  wonders  to 
confirm  fiilse  doctrine.  It  loved  tiie  night  of  the 
dark  ages,  and  clung  to  its  old  dogmas. 

The  church  came  at  length  to  be  a  colossus  of 
crime,  with  a  thin  veil  of  hypocrisy  drawn  over  its 
face,  and  that  only.  The  vow  of  purity  its  children 
took,  became  a  license  for  sin.  The  corruptest  of 
courts  was  the  court  of  the  Pope.  What  reverence 
had  the  Archbishops  for  the  doctrine  of  the  church  ? 
Cardinal  Bembo  bids  Sadolet  not  read  St.  Paul,  it 
would  spoil  his  taste.  In  early  ages  the  Apostles 
were  the  devoutest  of  men  ;  in  later  days  their 
"  successors  "  were  steeped  to  the  lips  in  crime. ^ 

For  centuries,  the  church,  like  the  Berserkers  of 
northern  romance,  seemed  to  possess  the  soul  and 
strength  of  each  antagonist  it  slew.  But  its  hour 
struck.  The  work  it  required  ten  centuries  to 
mature,  stood  in  its  glory  not  one.  Each  transient 
institution  has  a  truth,  or  it  would  not  be  ;  an  error, 
or  it  would  stand  forever.  The  truth  opens  men's 
eyes  ;  they  see  the  error  and  would  reject  it.  Then 
comes  the  perpetual  quarrel  between  the  Old  and 
the  New.     "  Every  battle  of  the  warrior,"  says  an 

'  See  Hallam,  ubi  sup.  Ch.  VII.  De-Potter  loves  to  dwell  on  the  faults 
of  the  church,  for  which  there  is  sufficient  opportunity ;  Neander,  as 
much  too  lenient,  errs  on  the  other  side.  Much  inform.ation  in  a  popular 
form  maj  be  found  in  AI.  Roux-Fcrrand,  Histoire  des  Progrcs  do  la  Civil- 
ization en  Europe,  G  vols.  gvo.  Paris,  1833-1S41,  Vol.  I  -II.  l,((.ons 
X.-XIl.  Vol.  III.  Ch.  IV-VI.  Vol.  IV.  Ch.  V.-VII.,  et  al. 


432  PROTESTANT  REFORM ATIOJN. 

ancient  prophet,  "  is  with  confused  noise,  and  gar- 
ments rolled  in  blood,"  but  the  battle  of  the  church 
was  a  devouring  flame. 

In  the  time  of  Boniface  VIII.,  or  about  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fourteenth  century,  an  eye  that  read 
the  signs  of  the  times,  and  saw  the  cloud  and  the 
star  below  the  horizon,  could  have  foretold  the 
downfall  of  the  church.  Its  brightest  hour  was  in 
the  day  of  Innocent  III.  A  wise  Providence  gov- 
erns the  affairs  of  men,  and  never  suffers  the  leaf  to 
fall  till  the  swelling  bud  crowds  it  off.  Out  of  the 
ashes  of  the  old  institution  there  springs  up  a  new 
being,  soon  as  the  world  can  give  it  place.  No  in- 
stitution is  normal  and  ultimate.  It  has  but  its  day, 
and  never  lasts  too  long  nor  dies  too  soon.  Judaism 
and  Heathenism  nursed  and  swaddled  mankind  for 
Christianity,  which  came  in  the  fulness  of  time. 
The  Catholic  church  rocked  the  cradle  of  mankind. 
In  due  season,  like  a  jealous  nurse,  assiduous  and 
meddlesome,  but  grown  ill-tempered  with  age  and 
disgust  of  new  things,  she  yields  up  with  reluctance 
her  rebellious  charge,  whose  vagaries  her  frowns 
and  stripes  will  not  restrain ;  whose  struggling 
weight,  her  withered  arms  are  impotent  to  bear; 
whose  aspiring  soul  her  anicular  and  maudlin  wit 
cannot  understand.  Her  promise  will  not  coax  ;  nor 
her  baubles  bribe  ;  nor  her  curses  affright  him  more. 
The  stripling  child  will  walk  alone. 

The  Protestant  "  Reformation  "  came  from  the 
action  of  Ideas  which  had  not  justice  done  them  in 


THE  REFORMATION.  433 

the  Catholic  church,  just  as  the  Christian  Reforma- 
tion from  Ideas  not  sufficiently  represented  in  Judaism 
and  Heathenism.  It  did,  not  more  than  the  other, 
come  all  at  once.  There  was  "  Luthcranism  "  be- 
fore Luther,  as  Christianity  before  Christ.  Slowly 
the  ages  prepared  for  both,  for  each  was  a  point  in 
the  development  of  man.  The  church  educated 
men  to  see  her  faults  ;  gave  them  weapons  to  attack 
her.  The  Reformation  was  long  a  gathering  in  the 
bosom  of  the  church  itself.^  Athanasius  had  his 
Arius  to  contend  with.  There  was  always  some 
Paul  of  Samosata,  some  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia, 
some  Peter  of  Bruis,  or  Henry  of  Lausanne,  to 
trouble  the  church.  In  the  twelfth  century  it  took 
all  the  miracles  of  Clairvaux  and  the  leanness  of  its 
Abbot,  to  put  down  the  heretics,  who  would  come 
up  again.  Was  there  not  Waldo  in  France,  Arnold 
of  Brescia  in  the  papal  state,  John  Huss  at  Con-- 
stance,  and  Wicliff  in  England,  and  all  of  them  at 
no  great  distance  of  time  ?  Faustus  and  Gutenberg 
did  more  for  the  Reformation  than  the  Diet  at 
Worms.  Luther,  and  Zvvingle,  and  Calvin,  and 
the  host  of  great  men  who  grew  in  their  shadow 
were  only  the  heralds  that  blew  the  trumpet  of  the 
Reformation  ;  its  prize-fighters,  not  directors  of  the 
movement.  It  was  the  God  of  nations  that  moved 
the  world's  heart.     The  Spirit  only  culminated  in 


*  Ranke  in  his  Die  romischen  Pabste,«Se,c.  ira  IG  und  17.  Jarhhundert 
gives  abundant  proof  of  this  reformatory  movement  in  tlie  church  itself. 
See  particularly  Vol.  I.,  B.  II.,  but  the  tale  of  ecclesiastical  crime  is  even 
more  distinctly  told. 

55 


434  PROTESTANT  REFORMATION. 

Luther  and  his  friends.  It  burned  in  holy  hearts 
in  Bohemia  and  Languedoc,  and  the  valleys  of  the 
Pyrennees,  and  the  mountains  of  Tyrol ;  it  breathed 
in  lofty  minds  at  Paris,  Saxony,  Padua,  London, 
Rome  itself.  Every  learned  Greek  the  Turks 
frighted  from  Constantinople,  or  Italian  wealth  lured 
to  the  queen  of  cities  ;  every  manuscript  of  the 
classics,  the  Fathers,  the  councils,  the  Scriptures 
which  found  deliverance  from  the  moles  and  the 
bats  ;  every  improvement  in  law,  science  and  art ; 
every  discovery  in  Alchemy  or  Astrology  ;  every 
invention  from  the  mariner's  compass  to  monk 
Schwartz's  gunpowder,  was  an  agent  of  the  Re- 
formation. We  find  Reformers,  from  the  time  of 
Marcion  to  John  Wessel.  Some  tried,  as  in  the  time 
of  Christ,  to  put  new  wine  in  old  bottles,  but  losing 
both,  looked. round  for  new  things.  That  long  train 
of  Mystics,  from  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  to  Meister 
Eckart  of  Strassburg,  prepared  for  the  work  that 
Luther  built  up  with  manly  shouting. 

To  sum  up  the  claim  of  this  party;  the  catholic 
church  is  based  on  the  assumption  that  God  inspires 
that  church,  miraculously  and  exclusively.  This 
assumption  is  false.  Though  the  oldest  organiza- 
tion in  the  world,  it  has  no  right  over  the  soul  of 
man.' 


'  See,  who  will,  the  Roman  doctrine  thoroughly  attacked  in  the  pon- 
derous folio  of  Joh.  Gerhard,  Confessio  Catholica,  &c.,  &c.,  ike,  Frank- 
fort, 1679;    and  the  superficial  and  somewhat   one-sided   Essay  of  M 


PROTESTANT  REFORMATION.  435 

Bouvet,  Du  Catholicisme,  du  Protestantismo,  et  de  la  Philoaophie  en 
France  ;  Paris,  1840.  Many  of  the  most  important  claims  of  the  catholic 
church,  that  of  supremacy  in  temporal  affairs,  Infallibility  in  spiritual 
matters,  and  the  Right  to  enforce  doctrines,  are  abandoned  by  an  able 
Catholic  writer,  J.  H.  Von  Wessenberg,  the  present  bishop  of  Con- 
stance. See  his  Die  grossen  Kirchenversammlungen  des  loten  und  IGten 
Jahrhundert,  Const.  1840,  4  vol.  8vo. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE    PROTESTANT    PARTY. 


The  distinctive  idea  of  Protestantism  is  this : 
the  canonical  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments are  the  direct  Word  of  God,  and  therefore  the 
only  infallible  rule  of  religious  faith  and  practice. 
It  logically  denied  that  an  inspired  man  was 
needed  to  stand  between  mankind  and  the  inspired 
Word.  Each  man  must  consult  the  Scriptures  for 
himself ;  expound  them  for  himself,  by  the  common 
rules  of  grammar,  logic,  and  rhetoric.  Each  man, 
therefore,  must  have  freedom  of  conscience  up  to 
this  point,  but  no  farther.  God  was  immanent  in 
the  Scriptures ;  not  in  the  church.  The  ecclesias- 
tical tradition  was  no  better  than  other  tradi- 
tion. It  might,  or  it  might  not,  be  true.  The 
Catholic  church  had  no  miraculous  inspiration. 
Now  it  was  a  great  step  for  the  human  race,  to 
make  this  assertion  at  that  time  ;  it  demanded  no 
little  manhood  to  make  it  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
Where  were  the  men  who  had  made  it  in  the  sixth. 


PROTESTANTISM.  437 

and  all  subsequent  centuries  ?  Their  bones  and 
their  disgrace  paved  the  highway  on  which  Luther 
w-alked  as  a  giant  to  a  fame  world-wide  and  abid- 
ing. At  first  the  work  of  the  Protestants,  like  that 
of  all  Reformers,  was  negative,  exposing  the  errors, 
sins,  of  the  Catholic  church ;  clearing  the  spot  on 
which  to  erect  their  church  ;  fighting  with  words 
and  blows.  In  the  war  of  the  giants,  sore  strokes 
must  be  laid  on.  The  ground  shook  and  the  sky 
rang  with  the  quarrel.  "  God  will  see,"  said  stout 
Martin,  "  which  gives  out  first,  the  Pope  or  Luther." 
The  church  thundered  and  lightened  from  the  sev- 
en-hilled city,  looking  with  a  frown  towards  Sax- 
ony. Luther  gave  back  thunder  for  thunder,  scorn 
for  scorn.  Did  the  church  condemn  Luther  ?  He 
paid  it  back  in  the  same  pence.  The  church  says, 
"  Luther  is  a  heretic,  and  should  be  burned  had  we 
skill  to  catch  him."  Luther  declares  "  the  Pope  is 
a  wolf  possessed  with  the  devil,  and  we  ought  to 
raise  the  hue  and  cry,  and  tear  him  to  pieces  with- 
out judge  or  jury." 

I.   The  Merit  of  Protestantism. 

Its  merit  as  a  Reformation  was  both  negative 
and  positive.  It  was  right  in  declaring  the  church, 
with  its  clergy,  cardinals,  councils,  po])es,  no  more 
inspired  than  other  men,  and  therefore  no  more  fit 
than  others  to  keep  tradition,  expound  scripture, 
and  hold  the  keys  of  heaven  ;  nay,  more,  that  by 
reason  of  their  prejudice,  ignorance,  sloth,  amhition, 


438  MERIT  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

crime,  and  sin  in  general,  they  had  less  inspiration, 
for  they  had  grieved  away  the  Spirit  of  God.-  It 
was  right  in  denying  the  authority  of  the  church  in 
temporal  matters ;  in  declaring  that  its  tradition 
was  no  better  than  other  tradition,  nay,  was  even 
less  valuable,  for  the  church  had  told  lies  in  the 
premises,  and  the  fact  was  undeniable.  The  Pro- 
testants justified  their  words  in  this  matter  by  ex- 
posing the  weak  points  of  the  church,  its  lies,  false 
doctrines,  and  wicked  practices  ;  its  arrogance  and 
worldly  ambition  ;  the  disagreement  of  the  popes  ; 
the  contradictions  of  the  councils  and  fathers,  and 
the  crimes  of  the  clergy,  who  make  up  the  church. 
It  was  right  in  examining  the  canon  of  Scripture, 
casting  off  w^hat  was  apochryphal,  or  spurious  ;  in 
demanding  that  the  laity  should  have  the  Bible 
and  the  Sacraments  in  full,  and  claim  the  right  to 
interpret  Scripture,  reject  tradition,  relics,  saints, 
and  have  nothing  between  them  and  Christ  or  God. 
It  was  right  in  demanding  freedom  of  conscience 
for  all  men,  up  to  the  point  of  accepting  the  Scrip- 
tures.^   This  was  no  vulgar  merit,  but  one  we  little 

*  It  is  not  necessary  to  cite  the  proofs  of  the  above  statements  from  the 
Reformers,  as  they  may  be  found  in  the  dogmatical  writers  so  often  re- 
ferred to  before.  The  most  significant  passages  may  be  found  collected 
in  Harles,  Theologische  Encyclopadie  und  Methodologie,  Leips.  1837, 
Chap.  III.-IV.  The  early  Reformers  differed  in  opinion  as  to  the  author- 
ity of  the  Bible.  It  is  well  known  with  what  freedom  and  contempt  Lu- 
ther himself  spoke  of  parts  of  the  canon,  and  the  stories  of  miracles  in 
the  Gospels  and  Pentateuch.  But  his  own  opinion  fluctuated  on  this  as 
on  many  other  points.  He  cared  little  for  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke. 
Indeed,  it  would  not  require  a  very  perverse  ingenuity  to  make  out,  from 
the  Reformers,  a  Straiissianismus  ante  Strmissium. 


DEFECTS  OF  PROTEST.VNTISM.  439 

appreciate.     The   men  who  fight   the  battle  for  all 
souls,  rarely  get  justice  from  the  world. 

II.  The  Vice  and  Defect  of  Protestantism. 

Its  capital  vice  was  to  limit  the  power  of  private 
inspiration,  and,  since  there  must  be  somewhere  a 
standard  external  or  wiiiiin  us,  to  make  the  Bible 
MASTER  OF  THE  SouL.  Thcorcticalhj,  it  narrowed 
the  sources  of  religious  truth,  and  instead  of  three? 
as  the  Catholics,  it  gave  us  but  one  ;  though  prac- 
tically it  did  more  than  the  Catholics,  for  it  brought 
men  directly  to  one  fountain  of  truth. ^  Now  if  the 
Catholic  had  an  undue  reverence  for  the  organized 
church,  so  had  the  Protestant  for  the  Scriptures. 
Both  sou";ht  in  the  world  of  concrete  thinjis  an  in- 
fallible  source  and  standard  of  moral  and  religious 
truth.  There  is  none  such  out  of  the  Soul ;  neither 
in  the  church,  nor  the  Bible.  Both  must  be  ideal- 
ized to  support  this  pretension.  Accordingly  as 
the  one  party  idealized  the  church  ;  assumed  its 
divine  Origin,  its  Infallibility,  and  the  exclusive 
immanence  of  God  therein  ;  so  the  other  assumed 
the  divine  origin  of  the  Scriptures,  their  infallihii- 
ity,  and  the  immanence  of  God  in  them.  Has 
either  party  proved  its   point  ?    Neither  is  capable 


'  This  is,  logically  speaking,  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  Reform- 
ers, though  qualifications  of  it  may  be  found  in  Luther,  Melancthon, 
Zwingle,  and  Calvin,  which  detract  much  from  its  scientific  rigor.  But 
still  the  principle  was  laid  down  at  the  bottom  of  the  Protestant  fabric, 
and  is  still  a  stone  of  stumbling  and  rock  of  offence  to  free  men. 


440     '  PROTESTANTISM   AND  THE  BIBLE. 

of  proof.  As  the  Catholic  maintained,  in  the  very 
teeth  of  notorious  facts,  that  there  was  no  contra- 
diction in  the  doctrines  of  the  church,  its  popes  and 
councils,  and  more  eminent  Fathers  ;  in  the  very 
face  of  Reason,  that  all  its  doctrines  v^^ere  true  and 
divine  ;  so  did  the  Protestant,  in  the  teeth  of  facts 
equally  notorious,  deny  there  vras  any  contradic- 
tion in  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  its  prophets, 
evangelists,  apostles  ;  in  the  very  face  of  Reason, 
declared  that  every  word  of  Scripture  was  the  word 
of  God,  and  eternally  true  !  Nay,  more,  the  Pro- 
testants maintained  that  the  record  of  Scripture  was 
so  sacred,  a  divine  Providence  watched  over  it  and 
kept  all  errors  from  the  manuscript.  What  a  cry 
the  Protestants  made  about  the  "  various  readings." 
Could  Cappellus  get  his  book  on  the  textual  varia- 
tions of  the  Old  Testament  printed  under  Protest- 
ant favor  ?  A  perpetual  miracle,  said  Protestant- 
ism, kept  the  text  of  the  Old  Testament  and  New 
Testament  from  the  smallest  accident.  But  that 
doctrine  would  not  stand  against  the  noble  army  of 
various  readings,  thirty  thousand  strong. 

"  Where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish." 
The  Protestants,  denying  there  was  inspiration  now 
as  in  Paul's  time,  yet  knowing  they  must  have  reli- 
gious truth,  or  the  Word  of  God,  clung  like  dying 
men  to  the  letter  of  the  Bible,  as  their  only  hope. 
The  words  of  the  Bible  had  but  one  meaning,  not 
many  ;  that  was  to  be  got  at  by  the  usual  methods. 
Pious  and  honest  study  of  the  grammatical,  logical, 


PROTESTANTISM  NOT  FINAL.  441 

rhetorical  sense  thereof.^  With  its  word,  man  must 
stop,  for  he  has  readied  tlio  fountain  Iiead.  I3ut 
has  the  word  of  God  become  a  letter ;  is  all  trutli 
in  the  Bible,  and  is  no  error,  no  contradiction  there- 
in ?  So  said  Protestantism.  This  was  its  vice. 
But  God  has  set  one  thing  against  another,  so 
that  all  work  together  for  good.  It  was  a  great 
step  to  get  back  to  the  Bible,  and  freedom  of  con- 
science, and  good  sense  in  its  exposition. 

Protestantism  wrought  wonders,  and  overthrew 
the  magicians  in  the  Egypt  of  the  church.  It  saw 
the  ecclesiastical  Pharaoh  and  his  host  in  the  Red 
Sea,  with  destruction  opening  its  hungry  jaws  to 
devour  them.  But  it  had  a  mixed  multitude  in  its 
own  train,  and  left  the  people  in  the  wilderness, 
wandering  like  the  Gibeonites,  with  no  power  to 
get  bread  from  Heaven,  or  water  from  the  living 
rock.  Its  Jethros  were  philologists  who  knew  no- 
thing of  the  spiritual  land  of  hills  and  brooks,  and 
milk  and  honey.  Its  leaders —  men  noble  as  Mo- 
ses, men  of  vast  soul,  and  Herculean  power  to  do 
and  suffer  —  had  a  Pisgah-view  of  the  land  of 
promise,  and  wished  God  would  put  his  spirit  on  all 
the  people  ;  but  they  died  and  gave  no  sign.  The 
nations  are  still  wandering  in  the  desert ;  carrying 

•  Chemnitz,  Loci  communes,  Pt.  III.  p.  235,  et  al.  denounces  the 
doctrine  of  the  church,  that  the  Bible  was  "imperfect,  insufficient,  am- 
biguous and  obscure."  Lutlier  and  Melancthon  condemn  the  old  practice 
of  allrgorizing  Scripture.  See  the  passages  collected  in  Ilarles,  ubi  sup., 
p.  133,  et  seq.  and  the  dogmatical  writers  above  referred  to.  Strauss, 
Glaubenslehre,  §  12,13,  Seckendorf,  De  Lutheranismo,  ttc.ed.  IGStf,  p. 
10,  3?,  130,  174. 

56 


442  GREATNESS   OF   SPIRITUAL   REFORMERS. 

the  Sanctuarj,  the  Ark,  the  Table  of  the  Law  ; 
sometimes  sighing  after  the  leeks  and  garlics  left 
behind  ;  now  and  then  worshiping  a  calf  of  gold, 
of  parchment,  or  spoken  wind  ;  murmuring  and  re- 
bellious ;  with  here  and  there  a  Korah,  Dathaii 
and  Abiram  rising  up  in  their  ranks,  but  with  no 
Moses  nor  pillar  of  fire.  Still,  God  be  praised,  we 
are  no  longer  slaves  under  the  iron  bondage  of  the 
church.  They  were  men  who  dared  to  come  out, 
those  heroes  of  the  Reformation.  This  Protest 
against  the  Catholic  church,  was  one  of  the  noblest 
the  world  ever  saw  ;  perhaps  never  surpassed  but 
once,  and  then  by  a  single  soul,  big  as  yesterday, 
today,  and  forever.  Stout-hearted  Martin  Luther, 
with  his  face  rugged,  homely  and  honest,  with  a 
soul  of  fire,  and  words  like  cannon-shot,  a  heart 
that  feared,  neither  Pope  nor  Devil,  and  a  living 
faith  that  sang  in  his  dungeon.  "  The  Lord  our 
God  is  a  castle  strong,"  —  the  greatest  of  the  pro- 
phets and  the  "  chiefest  of  apostles,"  seems  little 
to  him.  We  may  thank  God  and  take  courage,  re- 
membering that  such  men  have  been,  and  may  be. 
There  is  no  tyranny  like  the  spiritual ;  that  of  soul 
over  soul ;  no  heroism  like  that  which  breaks  the 
bonds  of  such  tyranny.  You  shall  find  men  thick 
as  acorns  in  Autumn,  who  will  wade  neck-deep  in 
blood,  and  charge  up  to  the  cannon's  mouth,  when 
it  rains  shot,  as  snow  flakes  at  Christmas.  Such 
men  may  be  had  for  red  coats  and  dollars,  and 
"  fame."  It  requires  only  vulgar  bravery  for  that, 
and  men  who  are  "  food  for  powder."     But  to  op- 


GRKATNESS  OF  SPIRITUAL  REFORMERS.  443 

pose  the  institution  which  your  fiithers  lovod  in 
centuries  gone  by  ;  to  sweep  off  the  altars,  forms 
and  usages  wliich  ministered  to  your  motlier's  piety, 
helped  her  bear  the  cross  and  bitter  ills  of  life,  and 
gave  her  winged  tranquillity  in  the  hour  of  death  ; 
to  sunder  your  ties  of  social  sympathy ;  destroy  the 
rites  associated  with  the  aspiring  dream  of  child- 
hood, and  its  earliest  prayer,  and  the  sunny  days  of 
youth  —  to  disturb  these  because  they  weave  chains, 
invisible  but  despotic,  which  bind  the  arm  and  fet- 
ter the  foot,  and  confine  the  heart ;  to  hew  down 
the  hoary  tree  under  whose  shadow  the  nations 
played  their  game  of  life,  and  found  in  death  the 
clod  of  the  valley  sweet  to  their  weary  bosom,  — 
to  destroy  all  this  because  it  poisons  the  air  and 
stifles  the  breath  of  the  world  —  it  is  a  sad  and  a 
bitter  thing ;  it  makes  the  heart  throb,  and  the  face, 
that  is  hard  as  iron  all  over  in  public,  weeps  in  pri- 
vate, weak  woman's  tears  it  may  be.  Such  trials 
are  not  for  vulgar  souls  ;  they  feel  not  the  riddle  of 
the  world.  The  church  —  it  will  do  for  them,  for 
it  bakes  bread,  and  brews  beer.  Would  you  more  ? 
No.  That  is  enough  for  blind-mouths.  Duty, 
Freedom,  Truth,  a  divine  Life,  what  are  they  ? 
Trifles  no  doubt  to  monk  Tetzel,  the  Leos  and  the 
Bembos,  and  other  sleek  persons,  new  and  old. 
But  to  a  heart  that  swells  with  Religion,  like  the 
Atlantic,  pressed  by  the  wings  of  the  wind,  they 
are  the  real  things  of  God,  for  which  all  poor 
temporalities  of  fame,  ease  and  life  are  to  be  cast 
to  the  winds.     It   is  needful  that  a  man  be  true  ; 


444  THE  SYMBOLICAL    BOOKS. 

not  that  he  live.     Are  men  dogs,  that  they  must  be 
happy  ?     Luther  dared  to  be  undone. 

The  sacramental  error  of  Protestantism  in  re- 
stricting private  judgment  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Bible,  was  in  part  neutralized  by  admitting  freedom 
of  individual  conscience,  and  therefore  the  right 
and  the  duty  to  interpret  the  Bible.  Here  it 
allowed  great  latitude.  Each  man  might  determine 
by  historical  evidence  his  own  canon  of  Scripture, 
in  some  measure,  and  devise  his  own  method  of  in- 
terpretation. Yet  the  old  spirit  of  the  church  was 
still  there,  to  watch  over  the  exegesis.  The  Bible 
was  found  very  elastic,  and  therefore  hedges  were 
soon  set  about  it,  in  the  shape  of  symbolical  books, 
creeds,  thirty-nine  articles,  catechisms,  and  confes- 
sions of  faith,  which  cooped  up  the  soul  in  narrower 
limits.  But  these  formularies,  like  the  Scriptures, 
were  found  also  indefinite,  and  would  hold  the  most 
opposite  doctrines,  for  though  the  schoolmen  doubt- 
ed whether  two  similar  spirits  could  occupy  at  once 
the  same  point  of  space,  it  is  put  beyond  a  doubt 
that  two  very  dissimilar  doctrines  may  occupy  the 
same  words,  at  the  same  time.  Taking  "  sub- 
stance for  doctrine,"  any  creed  may  be  subscribed 
to,  and  a  solemn  ecclesiastical  farce  continue  to  be 
enacted,  as  edifying  if  not  so  entertaining  as  the 
old  miracle  plays.  That  was  popular  advice  for 
theologians  which  the  old  Jesuit  gave.  "  Let  us  fix 
our  own  meaning  to  the  words,  and  then  subscribe 
them."     The  maxim  is  still  "  as  good  as  new." 


INTERPRETATION  OF  THE  BIBLE.  445 

This  new  and  exclusive  reverence  for  tlie  Bible 
led  to  popular  versions  of  it ;  to  a  hard  study  of  its 
original  tongues  ;  and  a  most  diligent  examination 
of  all  the  means  of  interpreting  its  words.  Here  a 
wide  field  was  opened  for  critical  study,  which 
even  yet  has  not  been  thoroughly  explored.  A 
host  of  theological  scholars  sprang  up,  armed  to  the 
teeth  with  Greek  and  "  the  terrible  Hebrew," 
and  attended  by  a  Babylonian  legion  of  oriental 
tongues  and  rabbinical  studies,  —  scholars  who  had 
no  peers  in  the  church,  at  least,  since  the  time  of 
Jerome,  who  translated,  so  he  says,  Ecclesiasticus 
from  the  Hebrew  in  a  day !  But  this  study  led 
to  extravagance.  Sound  principles  of  interpretation 
were  advanced  by  some  of  the  Reformers,  but  they 
were  soon  abandoned.  Thus,  to  take  a  single 
example :  Luther,  Zwingle  and  Melancthon  said, 
A  passage  of  Scripture  can  have  but  one  meaning.^ 
It  is  unquestionably  true.  But  certain  doctrines 
must  be  maintained,  and  defended  by  Scripture  ; 
therefore  if  this  could  not  be  done  by  the  natural 
meaning  of  Scripture  a  secondary  sense  or  a  type 
must  be  sought.  Of  course  it  was  found.  The  old 
allegorical  way  of  interpretation  was  bad,  but  this 
typical  improvement  and  doctrine  of  secondary 
senses  was  decidedly  worse.-  In  the  hands  of 
both  Protestant  and  Catholic  interpreters,  the  Bible 

'  Luther  himself  did  not  always  adhere  to  this  rule,  in  explaining  the 
Old  Testament. 

*  See  StrauBs,  Leben  Jesu,  §  3-4.  Palfrey,  ubi  sup.  VoL  IL  Lcct. 
XXXIII  Rosenmaller,  Handbuch  fdr  Litcraturdcr  bib.  Kritik,  &c.  Vol. 
IV.  p.  l,et  seq. 


446  INTERPRETATION  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

is  clay,  to  be  turned  into  any  piece  of  ecclesiastical 
pottery  the  case  may  require ;  persecuted  in  one 
sense  they  flee  into  another.  It  is  a  very  Proteus, 
and  takes  all  forms  at  pleasure.  Now  it  is  a  river 
placid  as  starlight,  then  a  lion  roaring  for  his  prey. 
Job  went  through  some  troubles  in  his  life,  as  the 
poem  relates  ;  but  even  death  has  not  placed  him 
where  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling,  and  the 
weary  are  at  rest.  Professors  and  critics  have 
handled  him  more  sorely  than  Satan,  his  friends,  or 
his  wife.  They  have  made  him  "  sin  with  his 
lips  ;  "  his  saddest  disease  he  has  caught  at  their 
hands  ;  his  greatest  calamity  was  his  exposition. 
"  Oh  that  mine  adversary  had  written  a  book," 
said  the  patient  man.  Did  he  wish  to  explain  it? 
Then  is  he  rightly  treated,  for  the  explainers  have 
ploughed  upon  his  back ;  they  made  long  their 
furrows.  Moses,  says  the  Hebrew  Scripture,  was 
the  most  tormented  of  all  the  earth,  but  his  trials  in 
the  wilderness  were  nothing  to  his  sufferings  on  the 
rack  of  exegesis.  The  Critics  and  Truth  have  dis- 
puted over  him  as  the  Devil  and  Michael.  The 
prophets  had  a  hard  time  of  it  in  their  day  and 
generation  ;  but  Jeremiah  was  put  into  his  darkest 
dungeon  by  Christian  scholars ;  Isaiah  was  never 
so  painfully  sawn  asunder  as  by  the  interpreters,  to 
whom  facts  are  as  no  facts,  and  one  day  as  a  thou- 
sand years,  in  their  chronology.  Jonah  and  Daniel 
were  never  in  such  fatal  jeopardy  as  at  the  present 
day.  A  choleric  man  in  the  Psalms  could  not  curse 
his  foes,  but  he  uttered  maledictions  against  the  ene- 


DIVISIONS  AMONG  PROTESTANTS.  447 

mies  of  tlie  church ;  nor  speak  of  recovering  from 
illness,  but  he  predicts  an  event  which  took  place 
a  thousand  years  later.  A  young  Hebrew  could 
not  write  an  Anacreontic,  but  he  spoke  "of  Christ 
and  the  church."  Nay,  Daniel,  Paul  and  John 
must  predict  the  "  abomination  of  Rome  ;  "  all  the 
great  events  as  they  take  place,  and  even  the  end 
of  the  world,  in  the  day  some  fanatical  interpreter 
happens  to  live.  Is  the  Bible  the  Protestant  stand- 
ard of  faith  r  Then  it  is  more  uncertain  than  the 
things  to  be  measured.  The  cloud  in  Hamlet  is 
not  more  variable  than  the  "  infiiUible  rule  "  in 
the  hands  of  the  interpreters.  The  best  things  are 
capable  of  the  worst  abuse.  Alas,  when  shall  Rea- 
son and  Religion  have  their  place  with  the  sons  of 
men  ? 

Now  since  Protestantism  denied  the  immanence 
of  God  in  the  church,  as  such,  and  flouted  the 
claim  to  inspiration  when  made  by  any  modern,  it 
is  plain  there  could  be  no  one  authoritative  church ; 
all  were  equal,  resting  on  the  same  foundation. 
Then  admitting  freedom  of  judgment,  within  the 
limits  of  the  Bible,  and  great  latitude  in  expound- 
ing that ;  not  very  often  burning  men  for  heresy, 
—  though  cases  enough  in  point  might  easily  be 
cited  —  and  encouraging  great  activity  of  mind,  it 
led  to  diversity  of  opinions,  sentiments  and  prac- 
tice. This  began  in  the  Reformers  themselves. 
Religion  took  different  shapes  in  Ulrich  von  Hutten 
and  John  Calvin.     Men  obeyed  their  natural  affiii- 


448  PARTY  THAT  FEARS  GOD. 

ities,  and  grouped  themselves  into  sects,  each  of 
which  recognising  the  great  principle  of  all  Re- 
ligion ;  the  special  doctrine  of  Christianity ;  the 
peculiar  dogma  of  Protestantism,  has  also  some 
distinctive  tenet  of  its  own.  Soon  as  the  outward 
pressure  of  Papal  hostility  was  somewhat  lightened, 
these  conflicting  elements  separated  into  several 
churches.  Now  neglecting  these,  with  which  we 
in  New  England  have  little  to  do,  the  rest  may  be 
divided  into  two  parties,  namely : 

I.  Those  who  set  out  from  the  idea  that  God  is  a 
Sovereign. 

II.  Those  ivho  set  out  from  the  idea  that  God  is  a 
Father. 

The  theology  and  ethics,  the  virtue  and  vice  of 
each,  require  a  few  words. 

I.  The  Party  that  sets  out  from  the  Sovereignty  of 

God. 

This  party  takes  the  supernatural  view  before 
pointed  out.  It  makes  God  an  awful  king.  The 
universe  shudders  at  his  presence.  The  thunder 
and  earthquake  are  but  faint  whispers  of  his  wrath, 
as  the  magnificence  of  earth  and  sky  is  but  one  ray 
out  from  the  heaven  of  his  glory.  He  sits  in  awful 
state.  Human  flesh  quails  at  the  thought  of  Him. 
It  is  terrible  to  fall  into  his  hands,  as  fall  we  must. 
Man  was  made  not  to  be  peaceful  and  blessed,  but 
to  serve  the  selfishness  of  the  All-King,  to  glorify 
God  and  to  praise  him.    Originally,  man  was  made 


ITS  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD.  449 

pure  and  upriglit.  But  to  tempt  beyond  his  strength 
the  frail  creature  he  had  made,  God  forbid  him  the 
exercise  of  a  natural  inclination,  not  evil  in  itself. 
INfan  disobeyed  the  arbitrary  command.  He  fell, 
His  first  sin  brought  on  him  the  eternal  vengeance 
of  the  all-powerful  King;  hurled  him  at  once  from 
his  happiness  ;  took  from  him  the  majesty  of  his 
nature  ;  left  him  poor,  and  impotent,  and  blind,  and 
naked  ;  transmitting  to  each  of  his  children  all  the 
guilt  of  the  primeval  sin.  Adam  was  the  "federal 
head  of  the  human  race."  "  By  Adam's  fall  we 
sinned  all."     Man  has  now  no  power  of  himself  to  4^ 

discern  good  from  evil,  and  follow  the  good.     His  ^ 

best  efforts  are  but  filthy  rags  in  God's  sight ;  his 
prayer  an  abomination.  Man  is  born  totally  de- 
praved. Sin  is  native  in  his  bones.  Hell  is  his 
birthright.  To  be  anything  acceptable  to  God  he 
must  renounce  his  nature,  violate  the  law  of  the 
soul.  He  is  a  worm  of  the  dust,  and  turns  this 
way  and  that,  and  up  and  down,  but  finds  nothing 
in  nature  to  cling  by  and  climb. 

God  is  painted  in  the  most  awful  colors  of  the 
Old  Testament.  The  Hesh  quivers  while  we  read, 
and  the  soul  recoils  upon  itself  with  suppressed 
breath,  and  ghastly  face,  and  sickening  heart.  The 
very  Heavens  are  not  clean  in  his  sight.  The  grim, 
awful  King  of  the  world,  "  a  jealous  God  visiting 
the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children  ;  " 
"  angry  with  the  wicked  every  day,"  and  "  keeping 
anger  forever,"  "  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold 
iniquity,"  he  hates  sin,  though  he  created  it,  and 

57 


450  CONDITION  AND   LOT  OF   MAN. 

man,  though  he  made  him  to  fall,  "  with  a  perfect 
hatred."  Vengeance  is  his,  and  he  will  repay.  He 
must,  therefore,  punish  man  with  all  the  exquisite 
torture  which  infinite  Thought  can  devise,  and 
Omnipotence  applj  ;  a  Creditor,  he  exacts  the  ut- 
termost farthing  ;  a  King,  the  smallest  offence  is 
high-treason,  the  greatest  of  crimes.  His  code  is 
Draconian  ;  he  that  offends  in  one  point  is  guilty  of 
all ;  good  were  it  for  that  man  he  had  never  been 
born.  Extremes!  vengeance  awaits  him.  The 
jealous  God  will  come  upon  him  in  an  hour  when 
he  is  not  aware,  and  will  cut  him  asunder.  Hence 
comes  the  doctrine  of  "  eternal  damnation,"  a  dog- 
ma which  Epicurus  and  Strato  would  have  called 
it  blasphemy  to  teach. 

But  God,  though  called  personal,  is  yet  infinite. 
Mercy  therefore  must  be  a  part  of  his  nature.  He 
desires  to  save  man  from  the  horrors  of  hell.  Shall 
he  change  the  nature  of  things  ?  That  is  impos- 
sible. Shall  he  forgive  all  mankind  outright  ?  The 
infinite  King  forgive  high-treason  !  It  is  not  con- 
sistent with  divine  dignity  to  forgive  the  smallest 
violation  of  his  perfect  law.  A  sin,  however  small, 
is  an  infinite  evil.  He  must  have  an  infinite  "  satis- 
faction." All  the  human  race  are  sinners,  by  being 
born  of  woman.  The  damning  sin  of  Adam  vests 
in  all  their  bones.  They  must  all  suffer  eternal 
damnation  to  atone  for  their  inherited  sin,  unless 
some  "  substitute  "  take  their  place. 

Now  it  has  long  been  a  maxim  in  the  courts  of 
law,  — whence  many  forensic  terms  have  been  taken 


ITS  DOCTRINE  OF  SALVATION.  451 

and  applied  to  theology,  —  especially  since  the  time 
of  Anselm  —  that  a  man's  property  may  suffer  in 
place  of  his  person,  and  since  his  friends  may  trans- 
fer their  property  to  him,  they  may  suffer  in  his 
place  "  vicarious  punishment."  Thus  before  Al- 
mighty God,  there  may  be  a  substitute  for  the  sin- 
ner. This  doctrine  is  a  theological  fiction.  It  is 
of  the  same  family  with  what  are  called  "  legal 
fictions"  in  the  courts,  and  "  practical  fictions"  in 
the  street.  A  large  and  ancient  family  it  must  be 
confessed,  that  has  produced  great  names.  But  no 
man  can  be  a  substitute  for  another,  for  sin  is  infinite 
and  he  finite.  Though  all  the  liquid  fires  of  hell 
be  poured  from  eternity  on  the  penitent  head  of  the 
w^hole  race,  not  a  single  sin,  committed  even  in 
sleep,  by  one  man,  could  be  atoned  for.  An  infinite 
"  ransom "  must  be  paid  to  save  a  single  soul. 
God's  "  Mercy  "  overcomes  his  "  Justice,"  for  man 
deserves  nothing  but  "  damnation,"  He  w^ill  pro- 
vide the  ransom.  So  he  sent  down  his  Son,  to  ful- 
fil all  the  law  — w^hich  man  could  not  fulfil,  —  realize 
infinite  goodness,  and  thus  merit  the  infinite  re- 
ward, and  then  suffer  all  the  tortures  of  infinite  sin, 
as  if  he  had  not  fulfilled  it,  and  thus  prepare  a  ran- 
som for  all  ;  "  purchasing  "  their  "  salvation." 
Thus  men  are  saved  from  hell,  by  the  "  vicarious 
suffering"  of  the  Son.  But  this  w^ould  leave  them 
in  a  negative  state  ;  not  bad  enough  for  hell ;  not 
good  enough  for  heaven.  The  "  merits  "  of  the 
Son  as  well  as  his  sufferings,  must  be  set  down  to 
their  account,  and  thus  man  is  elevated  to  Heaven 
by  the  "  imputed  righteousness,"  of  the  Son. 


452  ITS  DOCTRINE  OF   SALVATION. 

But  how  can  the  Son  achieve  these  infinite  merits 
and  endure  this  infinite  torment  and  "  redeem  "  and 
"  save  "  the  race  ?  He  must  be  infinite,  and  then 
it  follows,  for  all  the  actions  of  the  Infinite  are  also 
infinite,  in  this  logic.  But  two  Infinites  there  can- 
not be.  The  Son,  therefore,  is  the  Father,  and  the 
Father  the  Son.  God's  justice  is  appeased  bj 
God's  Mercy.  God  "  sacrifices  "  God,  for  the  sake 
of  man.  Thus  the  infinite  "  satisfaction  "  is  ac- 
complished ;  God  has  paid  God  the  infinite  ransom, 
for  the  infinite  sin  ;  the  "  sacrifice  "  has  been  of- 
fered ;  the  "  atonement "  completed  ;  "  we  are 
bought  with  a  price."  "  As  in  Adam  all  die  so  in 
Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive." 

Now  in  the  very  teeth  of  logic  this  system  under 
consideration  maintains  that  God  did  not  thus  pur- 
chase the  redemption  of  cdl,  for  such  "  forgiveness  " 
would  ill  comport  with  his  dignity.  Therefore  cer- 
tain "  conditions  "  are  to  be  complied  with,  before 
man  is  entitled  to  this  salvation.  God  knew  from 
all  eternity  who  would  be  saved,  and  they  are  said 
to  be  "  elected  from  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world,"  to  eternal  happiness.  God  is  the  cause  of 
their  compliance  —  for  man  has  no  free  will,  — 
hence  "  foreordination  ;  "  they  are  not  saved  by 
their  own  merit,  but  Christ's,  hence  "  particular  re- 
demption ;  "  having  no  will,  they  must  be  "  called  " 
and  moved  by  God,  and  if  elected  must  come  to 
him,  hence  "  effectual  calling ;  "  if  to  be  saved, 
they  must  continue  in  "  grace,"  hence  the  "  per- 
severance  of  the   saints."      The  salvation  of   the 


MERITS  OF  THIS   PARTY.  453 

"  elect ;  "  the  damnation  of  the  non-elect,  is  all 
effected  by  the  "  decrees  of  God,"  the  "  agency 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,"  the  "  satisfaction  of  Christ ;  " 
all  is  a  work  of  "  divine  grace." 

The  doctrine  of  the  "  Trinity  "  has  always  been 
connected  with  this  system.  It  does  not  embrace 
three  Gods,  as  it  has  been  often  alleged,  but  one  God 
in  three  persons,  as  the  Hindoos  have  one  God  in 
thirty  millions  persons,  and  the  Pantheists  one  God 
in  all  persons  and  all  things.  The  Father  sits  on 
the  throne  of  his  glory  ;  the  Son,  at  his  right  hand, 
"  intercedes"  for  man  ;  the  Holy  Spirit  "proceeds" 
from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  "  calls  "  the  saints 
and  makes  them  "  persevere."  This  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity  covers  a  truth,  though  it  often  conceals 
it.  Its  religious  significance  —  the  same  with  that 
of  Polytheism  —  seems  to  be  this  ;  God  does  not 
limit  himself  within  the  unity  of  his  essence,  but 
incarnates  himself  in  man  ;  hence  the  Son  ;  diffuses 
himself  in  space  and  in  spirit,  works  with  men  both 
to  will  and  to  do  ;  hence  the  Holy  Ghost. ^ 

I .  Merits  of  this  Party. 

This  party  has  great  practical  merits.  The  doc- 
trine sketched  above  shows  the  hatefulness  of  sin, 
the  terrible  evils  it  brings  upon  the  world.  Alas,  it 
need  not  look  long  to  see  them.  It  shows  man  at 
first  the  child  of  God  ;    holding  daily  intercourse 


'  See  the  Dial  for  April,  1812,  "Thoughts  on  Theology,"  p.  514,  et 
seq. 


454  IT  SHOWS  THE  EVIL  OF   SIN. 

with  the  Father ;  enjoying  the  raptures  of  Heaven 
on  earth,  but  by  one  step,  cast  out,  degraded,  lost, 
undone !  It  shows  the  world  full  of  sweet  sun- 
shine, truth,  beauty,  love,  till  Sin  entered,  and 
then  —  "  the  trail  of  the  Serpent  is  over  it  all."  It 
tells  how  sin  benumbs  the  mind,  palsies  the  heart, 
and  shuts  out  wisdom  at  every  entrance,  bringing 
death  to  the  intellect,  death  to  the  affections,  death 
to  the  soul.  The  great  enemy  of  man  is  the  child 
of  sin.  It  tells  man  he  is  the  son  of  God,  fallen 
from  his  high  estate,  and  crushed  by  the  Fall ;  but 
he  may  yet  return.  Christ  will  bind  up  his  wounds  ; 
wash  away  all  sin,  with  his  blood,  and  he  may  start 
anew.  It  encourages  men  who  are  steeped  in  sin  ; 
tells  them  they  may  yet  return.  It  says,  "  Come 
unto  Christ."  But  alas,  the  wounded  man,  with  no 
freedom,  must  wait  till  the  Holy  Ghost,  like  the 
good  Samaritan,  bind  up  his  wounds  and  bid  him 
rise  and  walk.  If  he  is  of  the  elect,  the  invitation 
will  come,  and  each  hopes  he  is  of  that  blessed 
company. 

One  excellence  comes  out  of  its  very  defect ;  it 
thinks  none  can  be  saved  but  by  accepting  Chris- 
tianity, a  knowledge  of  which  comes  through  the 
letter  of  the  Bible.  Therefore  it  is  indefatigable  in 
sending  Bibles  and  missionaries  the  world  over.  If 
they  do  little  good  where  they  go,  the  very  purpose 
and  effort  are  good.  A  man  is  always  warmed  by 
the  smoke  of  his  own  generous  sacrifice. 

It  recommends  an  austere  morality.  It  calls  on 
men  to  repent ;  addresses  rousing  sermons  to  the 


Tilt:  DEFECTS  OF  THIS   PARTY.  455 

fears  of  the  wicked,  and  moves  men  uliom  liigher 
motives  would  not  move  ;  men  who  ask,  pay  for 
goodness.  It  has  a  deep  reverence  for  God ; 
and  counts  Religion  a  reality  ;  insists  on  a  right 
heart.  It  Avatches  over  sin  Avith  a  jealous  eye. 
Coming  from  a  principle  so  deep  as  reverence  for 
God ;  believing  it  has  all  of  truth  in  the  lids  of  the 
Bible ;  confiding  in  the  intercession  and  atonement 
of  Christ ;  setting  before  the  righteous  the  certainty 
of  God's  aid  if  they  are  faithful,  to  assure  their  per- 
severance, and  promising  all  the  rewards  of  heaven, 
it  makes  men  strong,  very  strong.  We  see  its  in- 
fluence, good  and  bad,  on  some  of  the  fathers  of 
New  England,  in  their  self-denial,  their  penitence, 
their  austere  devotion,  the  unconquerable  daring, 
the  religious  awe  which  marked  those  iron  men. 

2.  The  Vices  of  this  Party. 

Jf  it  have  great  merits,  it  has  great  faults.  Its 
faults  come  from  its  peculiar  doctrine,  while  its 
merits  have  a  deeper  source.  It  makes  God  dark 
and  awful ;  a  judge  not  a  protector ;  a  king  not  a 
Father;  jealous,  selfish,  vindictive.  He  is  the 
Draco  of  the  Universe.  The  Author  of  Sin,  but 
its  unforgiving  avenger.  Man  must  hate  the  pic- 
ture it  makes  of  God.  He  is  the  Jehovah  of  the 
book  of  Numbers,  more  cruel  than  Odin  or  Belus. 
He  punishes  sin  —  though  its  Author  —  for  his  own 
glory,  not  for  man's  benefit  and  correction.  All  the 
lovely  traits  of  divine  character  it  bestows  upon  the 


456  ITS   DOCTRINE  OF  MAJNf. 

Son  ;  he  is  mild  and  beautiful  as  God  is  awful  and 
morose.  Men  rush  from  the  father;  they  flee' to 
the  Son.  Its  religion  is  fear  of  God,  not  love  of 
him,  for  man  cannot  love  vvdiat  is  not  lovely. 

This  system  degrades  man.  It  deprives  him  of 
freedom.  It  makes  him  not  only  the  dwarf  of 
himself —  for  the  actual  man  is  but  the  dwarf  of  the 
ideal  and  possible  man  —  but  a  being  hapless  and 
ill-born  ;  the  veriest  worm  that  crawls  the  globe. 
To  take  a  step  toward  Heaven  he  must  deny  his 
nature,  and  crucify  himself.  He  is  born  totally  de- 
praved, and  laden  besides  with  the  sins  of  Adam. 
He  can  do  nothing  to  recover  from  these  sins  ;  the 
righteousness  of  Christ  is  the  only  ground  of  the 
sinner's  justification  ;  this  righteousness  is  received 
through  faith,  which  is  the  gift  of  God,  and  so  sal- 
vation is  wholly  of  grace.  The  salvation  of  man  is 
made  for  him,  not  by  him.  It  logically  annihilates 
the  difference  between  good  and  evil,  denying  the 
ultimate  value  of  a  divine  life.  It  takes  out  of  the 
pale  of  manhood  its  fairest  sons,  prophets,  saints, 
apostles,  Moses,  Jesus,  Paul,  and  makes  their  char- 
acter miraculous,  not  human.  It  tears  off  the  crown 
of  royalty  from  man,  makes  Jesus  a  God  ;  does  not 
tell  us  we  are  born  sons  of  God,  as  much  as  Jesus, 
and  may  stand  as  close  to  God.  It  does  not  tell  of 
God  now  near  at  hand,  but  a  long  while  ago.  It 
makes  the  Bible  a  tyrant  or  the  soul.  It  is  our 
MASTER  in  all  departments  of  thought.  Science 
must  lay  his  kingly  head  in  the  dust ;  Reason  veil 
her  majestic  countenance  ;  Conscience  bow  him  to 


DEFECTS  OF  THIS  PARTY.  457 

the  earth  ;  Religion  keeps  silence  when  the  priest 
uplifts  the  Bible.  Man  is  subordinate  to  the  apoc- 
ryphal, ambiguous,  imperfect,  and  often  erroneous 
scripture  of  the  Word  ;  the  Word  itself,  as  it  comes 
straightway  from  the  fountain  of  Truth,  throu2;hRea- 
son.  Conscience,  and  Religion,  he  must  not  have. 
It  takes  the  Bible  for  God's  statute-book  ;  combines 
old  Hebrew  notions  into  a  code  of  ethics  ;  takes 
figures  for  fact ;  settles  questions  in  Morals  and 
Religion  by  texts  of  Scripture  !  It  can  justify  any- 
thin";  out  of  the  Bible.  It  wars  to  the  knife  with 
gaiety  of  heart ;  condemns  Amusement  as  sinful ; 
sneers  at  Common  Sense  ;  spits  upon  Reason,  call- 
ing it  "  carnal;"  appeals  to  low  and  selfish  aims  — 
to  fear,  the  most  selfish  and  base  of  all  passions. 
Fear  of  hell  is  the  bloody  knout  with  which  it 
scourges  reluctant  Flesh  across  the  finite  world, 
and  whips  him  smarting  into  Heaven  at  last.  It 
does  not  know  that  goodness  is  its  own  recompense, 
and  vice  its  own  torture;  that  judgment  takes  place 
daily,  and  God's  laws  execute  themselves.  Shall 
I  be  bribed  to  goodness  by  hope  of  Heaven  ;  or 
driven  by  fear  of  hell  ?  It  makes  man  do  nothing 
from  the  love  of  what  is  good,  beautiful  and  true. 
It  asks.  Shall  a  man  love  goodness  as  a  picture, /or 
itself?  Its  divine  life  is  but  a  good  bargain.  It 
makes  a  day  of  judgment;  heaven  and  hell  to  be- 
gin after  death,  while  goodness  is  Heaven,  and  vice 
hell,  now  and  forever. 

It   makes   Religion    unnatural    to    man,   and    of 
course  hostile  ;  Christianity  alien  to  the  soul.     It 

58 


458  ITS  HEAVEN. 

paves  hell  with  children's  bones;  has  a  personal 
devil  in  the  world,  to  harrj  the  land,  and  lure  or 
compel  men  to  eternal  woe.  Its  God  is  diabolical. 
It  puts  an  Intercessor  between  God  and  man;  re- 
lies on  the  Advocate.  Cannot  the  Infinite  love  his 
frail  children  without  teasing  ?  Needs  He  a  chan- 
cellor, to  advise  Him  to  use  forgiveness  and  mer- 
cy ?  Can  men  approach  the  Everj-where-present 
only  by  attorney,  as  a  beggar  comes  to  a  Turkish 
king  ?  Away  with  such  folly.  Christ  bears  his 
own  sins,  not  another's.  How  can  his  righteousness 
be  "  imputed  "  to  me  !  Goodness  out  of  me  is  not 
mine ;  helps  me  no  more  than  another's  food  feeds 
me,  or  his  sleep  refreshes.  Adam's  sin,  —  it  was 
Adam's  affair,  not  ours. 

This  system  applies  to  God  the  language  of 
kings'  courts,  trial,  sentence,  judgment,  pardon, 
satisfaction,  allegiance,  day  of  judgment.  Like  a 
courtier  it  lays  stress  on  forms  ;  baptism,  which  in 
itself  is  nothing  but  a  dispensation  of  water  ;  the 
Lord's  supper,  which  of  itself  is  nothing  but  a  dis- 
pensation of  wine  and  bread.  It  dwells  in  profes- 
sion of  faith  ;  watches  for  God's  honor.  It  makes 
men  stiff,  unbending,  cold,  formal,  austere,  seldom 
lovely.  They  have  the  strength  of  the  Law,  not 
the  beauty  of  the  Gospel ;  the  cunning  of  the  Jew, 
not  the  simplicity  of  the  Christian.  You  know  its 
hearty  followers  soon  as  you  see  them  ;  the  rose 
is  out  of  their  cheeks  ;  their  mouths  drooping  and 
sad  ;  their  appearance  says,  Alas,  my  fellow  worm  ! 
There    is    no    more    sunshine,    for    the    world    is 


ITS   HEAVEN.  459 

damned.  It  is  a  faith  of  stern,  morose  men,  well 
befitting  the  descendants  of  Odin,  and  his  iron 
peers  ;  its  Religion  is  a  principle,  not  a  sentiment  ; 
a  foreign  matter  imported  into  the  soul,  bj  fore- 
thougiit  and  resolution  ;  not  a  native  fountain  of 
joy  and  gladness,  lea])ing  up  in  winter's  frost,  and 
summer's  gladness,  playing  in  the  sober  autumn,  or 
the  sunshine  of  spring.  Its  Christianity  is  frozen 
mercury  in  the  bosom  of  the  warm-hearted  Chris- 
tian,  who,  by  nature,  would  go  straight  to  God, 
pray  as  spontaneous  as  the  blackbird  sings,  love  a 
thousand  times  where  he  hated  not  once,  and  count 
a  divine  life  the  greatest  good  in  this  world,  and 
ask  nothing  more  in  the  next.  The  Heaven  of  this 
system  is  a  grand  pay-day,  where  Humility  is  to 
have  its  coach  and  six,  forsooth,  because  she  has 
been  humble  ;  the  Saints  and  Martyrs,  who  bore 
trials  in  the  world,  are  to  take  their  vengeance  by 
shouting  "  Hallelujah,  Glory  to  God,"  when  they 
see  the  anguish  of  their  old  persecutors,  and  the 
"  smoke  of  their  torment  ascending  up  forever  and 
ever."  Do  the  joys  of  Paradise  pall  on  the  pleas- 
ure-jaded sense  of  the  "  Elect  ?  "  They  look  off  in 
the  distance  to  the  tortures  of  the  damned,  where 
Destruction  is  naked  before  them,  and  Hell  hath 
no  covering  ;  where  the  Devil  with  his  angels  stir- 
reth  up  the  embers  of  the  fire  which  is  never 
quenched  ;  where  the  doubters,  w^hom  the  church 
could  neither  answer  nor  put  to  silence  ;  where  the 
great  men  of  antiquity,  Confucius,  Budha,  Fo, 
Hermes,  Zoroaster,   Anaxagoras,    Socrates,  Plato, 


460  ITS   REPRESENTATIVES. 

Aristotle  ;  where  the  men,  great,  and  gifted,  and 
glorious,  who  mocked  at  difficulty,  softened  the 
mountains  of  despair,  and  hewed  a  path  amid  the 
trackless  waste,  that  mortal  feet  might  tread  the 
way  of  peace  ;  where  the  great  men  of  modern 
tiuies,  who  would  not  insult  the  Deity  by  bowing 
to  the  foolish  word  of  a  hireling  priest  —  where  all 
these  writhe  in  their  tortures,  turn  and  turn  and  find 
no  ray,  but  yell  in  fathomless  despair  ;  and  when 
the  Elect  behold  all  this,  they  say,  striking  on  their 
harps  of  gold,  "  Aha  !  We  are  comforted  and  Thou 
tormented,  for  the  Lord  God  Omnipotent  reigneth, 
and  our  garments  are  washed  white  in  the  blood  of 
the  Lamb." 

This  system  exists  nowhere  in  its  perfection ; 
that  is,  only  ideal.  It  is  incarnated  imperfectly  in 
many  forms.  But  it  is  the  groundwork  of  the 
popular  theology  of  New  England.^  It  appears 
variously  modified  in  all  the  chief  denominations  of 
North  America  and  Great  Britain.  No  one  of  all 
the  sects  which  represents  it,  but  has  great  excel- 
lencies in  spite  of  this  hateful  system.  Each  of 
them  is  doing  a  good  but  imperfect  work.  A  rude 
nation  must  have  a  rude  doctrine.  Yet  such  is  the 
system  on  which  they  rest  their  theology.  Though 
their  Religion,  say  what  they  will,  comes  from  no 
such  quarter.     This  system  is  older  than  Protest- 

'  I  have  been  careful  not  to  cite  authorities  lest  individual  churches  or 
7criters  should  be  deemed  responsible  for  the  sin  of  the  mass.  But  I  have 
not  spohen  without  book. 


PATERNITY  OK  GOD.  461 

antism,  and  is  the  child  of  many  fiithcrs.  How- 
ever it  is  continually  a})proaching  its  end.  The 
battering  ram  which  levelled  the  philosophy  of  the 
Stagirite  and  the  schoolmen,  will  beat,  ere  long, 
on  the  theology  of  the  church,  and  how  shall  it 
stand  ?  It  is  based  on  a  lie,  and  that  lie  under- 
mined. A  man  who  loves  wife  and  child,  and 
would  die  any  death  to  save  a  friend,  will  be  slow 
to  believe  in  total  depravity  ;  he  that  sees  a  swarm 
of  bees  in  summer,  or  hears  the  blackbird  sing  in 
his  honey-suckle,  will  not  believe  God  is  a  devil, 
though  all  the  divines  in  the  church  quote  the 
fathers  and  Scriptures  to  prove  it.  God  speaks 
truth  always,  and  will  the  pulpit  prevail  against 
him  ?  The  sands  of  this  theology  are  numbered, 
and  its  glass  shaken. 

II.  The  Party  that  sets  out  from  the  Patern  ity  of  God. 

This  system  makes  God  not  a  King  but  a  Father ; 
infinite  in  power,  wisdom,  and  love.  His  love 
rays  out  in  every  direction,  seeking  to  bless  the  all 
of  things.  The  world,  its  overarching  heavens, 
its  ocean,  its  mountains,  its  flowers  that  brighten 
in  the  sun-beam  ;  the  crimson  and  purple  that  weave 
a  lustrous  veil  for  the  face  of  Day,  at  the  rising  and 
decline  of  light ;  the  living  things  of  earth,  beast, 
bird,  fish,  insect,  so  full  of  happiness  that  the  world 
hums  with  its  joy,  —  all  these  it  counts  but  a  whisper 
of  God's  goodness,  though  all  the  babbling  elements 
can  teach.     It  sees   the   same  in  the  Bible,  for  it 


462  MERITS  OF  THIS   PARTY. 

loill  see  itself,  and  walks  in  the  shade  of  its  own 
halo  of  glory,  and  so  treads  on  rainbows  where  it 
steps. 

This  doctrine  of  God's  goodness  is  a  mighty 
truth ;  poorly  apprehended  as  yet,  though  destined 
to  a  great  work,  and  development  which  shall  never 
end.  Men  can  only  see  in  God  what  is  in  them- 
selves. Their  conception  of  God  cannot  transcend 
their  own  ideal  stature  of  spirit.  Since  goodness 
is  not  active  in  most  men,  nor  love  predominant; 
they  see  God  as  Power  to  be  feared ;  at  best  as 
Wisdom  to  be  reverenced  ;  not  as  Goodness  to  be 
loved,  nor  can  they  till  themselves  become  lovely. 

1.    The  Merits  of  this  Party. 

The  merits  of  this  system  are  very  great.  It 
makes  goodness  the  cause  of  all.  God  made  the 
world  to  bless  it.  His  love  flowed  forth  a  celes- 
tial stream  that  sparkles  in  the  sky,  surrounding  the 
world.  Apparent  evils  are  but  good  in  disguise, 
save  only  sin,  and  this  man  brings  on  himself, 
through  the  imperfection  of  his  nature,  progres- 
sive and  free.  Goodness  is  infinite,  but  sin  and 
evil  finite.  It  sees  a  perfect  system  of  optimism 
everywhere.  The  infinite  Love  must  desire  the 
best  thing ;  the  infinite  Wisdom  devise  means  for 
that  end,  and  infinite  Power  bring  about  the  result. 
All  things  are  overruled  for  good  at  the  last.  Sin 
is  a  point  mistaken  man  passes  through  in  his  de- 
velopment.    Suffering  is  man's  instructor.     It  was 


MERITS  OF  THIS   PARTY.  463 

good  for  Isaiali  and  Stephen  and  Paul  to  bear  the 
burthens  they  bore.  Affliction  is  success  in  a  mask. 
It  makes  the  world  look  fair  and  the  foce  joyful. 
It  hears  the  word  of  love  even  in  the  voice  of  tlu^ 
earthquake,  and  the  tread  of  the  pestilence.  Evil 
is  not  ultimate  but  transient.  It  tolls  man  of  his 
noble  nature  ;  his  lofty  duty  ;  his  fair  destination  if 
faithful.  It  makes  llcligion  natural  to  man  ;  bids 
him  obey  its  law  and  be  blessed  ;  not  to  be  good 
or  do  good  for  fear  of  hell  or  hope  of  heaven,  but 
for  itself.  It  would  not  have  men  fear  God,  the 
Religion  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  love  him,  —  the 
Relio;ion  of  the  New  Testament.  It  tells  us  we 
are  made  for  goodness  here,  and  heaven  hereafter. 
It  denies  original  sin,  or  admitting  that,  makes  it  of 
no  effect,  for  Christ  has  restored  all  to  their  first 
estate ;  thus  avoiding  the  logical  absurdity  of  the 
last  form.  Its  hell  is  not  eternal,  for  the  infinite 
love  of  God  must  make  the  whole  of  existence  a 
blessing  to  each  man.  God  is  so  lovely  we  flee, 
as  children,  to  his  arms,  a  refuge  from  all  the  trou- 
bles, follies  and  sins  of  life.  It  shows  His  uncon- 
tainable  goodness  in  earth  and  sea  and  sky  ;  in 
the  prophets  and  apostles,  sent  to  bless  ;  in  Jesus 
the  Saviour,  commissioned  to  redeem  the  world  — 
to  seek  and  save  the  lost.  It  fills  the  soul  with 
tranquillity,  peace,  an  exceeding  trust  in  God.  Se- 
renely the  man  goes  about  his  duties  ;  is  not  borne 
down  with  his  cross,  though  never  so  weighty  ; 
looks  on  and  smiles,  fearing  no  evil  but  sin,  and  lack 
of  faith.     As  he  looks  back,  he  sees  an  end  of  his 


464  THEIR  PRACTICAL  DEFECTS. 

perfection,  but  does  not  despair  at  the  broadness  of 
the  divine  law,  though  his  steps  totter  in  this  infancy 
of  his  being,  for  he  sees  worlds  open  before  him, 
where  a  stronger  sunlight  and  a  purer  sky  await 
him  ;  where  Reason,  Conscience,  and  Religion  shall 
finish  their  perfect  work,  and  he  shall  not  be  weary 
with  his  walk,  nor  faint  though  he  runs. 

This  system  allows  no  ultimate  evil,  as  a  back 
ground  of  God ;  believes  in  no  vindictive  pun- 
ishment. The  woes  of  sin  are  but  its  antidote. 
Suffering  comes  from  wrong-doing,  as  well-being 
from  virtue.  If  there  be  suffering  in  the  next 
world,  it  is  as  in  this,  but  the  medicine  of  the 
sick  soul.  It  allows  no  contradiction  between  God's 
goodness  and  mercy.  We  require  to  be  reconciled 
with  him,  not  he  with  us.  We  love  him  soon 
as  seen.  It.  makes  Religion  inward ;  of  the  life  and 
heart ;  the  son's  service,  not  the  slave's ;  a  senti- 
ment, as  well  as  principle ;  an  encouragement  no 
less  than  a  restraint.  God  seeks  to  pour  himself  into 
the  heart,  as  the  sun  into  the  roses  of  June.  These 
are  no  vulgar  merits. 

2.   The  Defects  and  Vices  of  this  Party. 

So  far  as  this  system  is  derived  from  its  funda- 
mental Idea,  it  has  no  defect  nor  vice,  for  the  Idea 
is  absolute  and  answers  to  the  fact  —  God  is  good. 
But  the  absurdities  of  other  forms  mingle  their 
pestilent  breath  with  the  fragrance  of  truth  ;  and 
the  party  that  poorly  espouses  this  divine  idea  has 


ITS  REPRESENTATIVES.  465 

its  defects.  Men  do  not  see  the  sinfulness  of  sin  ; 
underrate  the  strength  of  liuman  passion,  cupidity, 
wrath,  selfishness,  intrenched  in  the  institutions  of 
the  world,  and  belonging  to  the  present  low  stage 
of  civihzation.  They  rellect  too  little  on  the  evil 
that  comes  from  violating  the  law  of  God  ;  overlook 
the  horrors  of  outraged  conscience,  and  do  not  re- 
member that  suffering  must  last  as  long  as  sin,  and 
man  only  can  remove  that  from  himself.  They  are 
not  sufficiently  zealous  to  do  good  to  others,  in  a 
spiritual  way. 

This  party  has  also  its  redundancies.  It  has 
taken  much  from  the  ungrateful  doctrines  of  the 
darker  system.  Its  followers  rely  on  Authority,  as 
all  Protestants  have  done.  They  make  man  de- 
pend on  Christ,  who  died  centuries  ago  —  not  on 
himself,  who  lives  now  ;  forgetting  that  it  is  not 
the  death  of  Jesus  that  helps  us,  but  the  death  of 
Sin  in  our  heart ;  not  the  life  of  Jesus,  the  personal 
Christ,  however  divine,  but  the  life  of  Goodness, 
Holiness,  Love,  in  our  own  heart.  A  Christ  out- 
side the  man  is  nothing ;  his  divine  life  nothing. 
God  is  not  a  magician  to  blot  sin  out  of  the  soul, 
and  make  man  the  same  as  if  he  had  never  sinned. 
Each  man  must  be  his  own  Christ,  or  he  is  no 
Christian. 

No  sect  has  fully  developed  the  doctrine  that  is 
legitimately  derived  from  this  absolute  Idea.  When 
its  time  comes  it  will  annihilate  this  poor  theology 
of  our  time,  and  give  man  his  birthright.  Some 
have  attempted  the  work  in  all  ages,  and  shared 

59 


466       ITS  DOCTRINE  POORLY  SET  FORTH. 

the  fate  of  men  before  their  time.  Their  bones 
lie  mouldering  in  many  a  spot,  accursed  of  men. 
They  bore  a  prophet's  mission,  and  met  his  fate. 
Were  they  hounds,  that  they  must  breathe,  to  be  ? 
Their  seed  has  not  perished  out  of  the  earth. 

This  doctrine  in  some  measure  tinges  the  faith  of 
all  sects  with  its  rosy  light.  It  abates  the  austerity 
of  the  Calvinist,  the  exclusiveness  of  the  Baptist ; 
does  a  great  work  in  the  camp  of  the  Methodist. 
All  churches  have  some  of  it,  from  the  Episcopalian 
to  the  Mormonite,  though  in  spite  of  their  theology. 
There  is  something  so  divine  in  Religion,  that  it 
softens  the  ruggedest  natures,  and  lets  light  even 
into  theology.  The  sects,  however,  which  chiefly 
rely  upon  it,  are  the  Universalists,  the  Restora- 
tionists  and  Unitarians.  But  how  poorly  they  do 
their  work  ,*  with  what  curtains  of  darkness  do  they 
overcloud  the  holy  of  holies  !  What  poor  inepti- 
tudes do  they  offer  us  in  the  midst  of  the  sublimest 
doctrines  ;  how  does  the  timid  littleness  of  their 
achievement,  or  endeavor,  stand  rebuked  before 
absolute  Religion  ;  before  the  motto  on  the  banner 
of  Christianity  :  God  is  Love  !  What  despair  of 
man,  of  Reason,  of  Goodness ;  what  bowing  and 
cringing  to  tradition.  Are  not  men  born  in  our 
time  as  of  old,  or  has  a  race  of  Liliputs  and  Mani- 
kins succeeded  to  Moses,  Socrates,  Jesus,  Paul  ? 
But  this  must  pass.  The  two  former  have  at  their 
basis  the  old  supernatural  theology,  and  differ  from 
the   strictest  sect  mainly  in  their  exegesis  ;  they 


.* 


THE    UNITARIANS.  467 

would  believe  anything  which  the  Bible  taujiht. 
They  are,  however,  doing  a  great  work.  But  the 
latter  are  of  more  importance  in  this  respect,  and^ 
though  few  in  numbers,  deserve  a  notice  by  them- 
selves. 

Of  the  Unitarians,  and  their  present  Position. 

At  first  the  "  Unitarian  heresy,"  as  it  was  pre- 
sumptuously called,  was  a  protest  against  the  un- 
reasonable and  unscriptural  doctrines  of  the  church  ; 
a  protest  on  the  part  of  Reason  and  Religion  ;  an 
attempt  to  apply  Good  Sense  to  theology,  to  recon- 
cile Knowledge  with  Belief,  Reason  with  Revela- 
tion, to  humanize  the  church.  Its  theology  was  of 
the  supernatural  character  mingled  with  more  or 
less  of  naturalism  and  spiritualism.  It  held  to  the 
first  positive  principles  of  the  Reformation  —  the 
Bible  and  Private  Judgment.  Contending,  as  it 
must,  with  the  predominant  sects,  then  more  arro- 
gant and  imperious  than  now,  perhaps  not  knowing 
so  well  the  ground  they  stood  on  —  its  work,  like 
most  Reformations,  was  at  first  critical  and  nega- 
tive. It  was  a  "  Statement  of  Reasons  for  not 
believing"  certain  doctrines,  very  justly  deemed 
not  scriptural.  Thus  it  protested  against  the  Trin- 
ity, total  depravity,  vindictive  and  eternal  punish- 
ment, the  common  doctrines  of  the  satisfaction  of 
Christ,  the  popular  character  ascribed  to  God.  It 
recommended  a  deep,  true  morality  lived  for  its 
own  sake ;  perhaps  sometimes  confounded  Morality 


468  EARLY  UNITARIANISM. 

with  Religion.  To  make  sure  of  Heaven,  it  demand- 
ed a  divine  life,  laying  more  stress  on  the  character 
than  the  creed  ;  more  on  honesty,  diligence,  charity, 
than  on  grace  before  meat,  or  morning  and  evening 
prayers.  In  point  of  moral  and  religious  life,  as 
set  forth  in  the  two  Great  Commands,  its  advo- 
cates fear  no  comparison  with  any  sect.  It  was 
not  boastful,  but  modest,  cautious,  unassuming ; 
mindful  of  its  own  affairs  ;  not  giving  a  blow  for  a 
blow,  nor  returning  abuse  —  of  which  there  was  no 
lack  —  with  similar  abuse.  It  had  a  great  work  to 
do,  and  did  it  nobly.  The  spirit  of  reformers  was 
in  its  leading  men.  The  sword  of  polemic  theolo- 
gy rarely  fell  into  more  just  and  merciful  hands.  But 
the  time  has  not  come  to  celebrate  with  due  honor 
the  noble  heart,  the  manly  forbearance,  the  Christ- 
ian heroism  of  those  who  have  gone  where  the 
weary  are  at  rest,  or  who  yet  linger  here.  They 
fought  the  battle  like  Christian  scholars,  long  and 
well.  The  seven-fold  shield  of  Orthodoxy  was 
rent  asunder,  spite  of  its  gorgon  head.  Its  ter- 
rible spear,  with  its  "  five  points,"  was  somewhat 
blunted. 

Thus  far  Unitarianism  was  but  carrying  out  the 
principles  of  the  Protestant  Reformation,  to  get  at 
the  pure  doctrines  of  Scripture,  which  was  still  the 
standard  of  faith.  Some,  it  seems,  silently  aban- 
doned the  divine  and  infallible  character  of  the 
Old  Testament  —  as  Socinus  had  done — but  clung 
strongly  as  ever  to  that  of  the  New  Testament, 
while  they  admitted  the   greatest  latitude  in  the 


GROWTH  OF   UJSITARIANISM.  469 

criticism  and  exegesis  of  that  collection.  The  Uni- 
tarians were  at  first  tlio  most  reasonahh^  of  secta- 
rians. The  Bil)Ie  was  their  creed.  Thinking  men, 
who  wouUl  conclude  for  themselves,  say  the  church 
what  it  mi<i;ht  saj,  naturally  came  up  to  Unitarian- 
ism.  Hence  its  growth  in  the  most  highly  culti- 
vated portion  of  the  new  \A'orld,  and  the  most  moral, 
it  has  been  said.  Men  sick  of  the  formality,  the  doc- 
trines, the  despotism  of  other  sets  ;  disgusted  with 
the  sophistry  whose  burrow  was  in  tlie  church  ; 
pained  at  the  charlatanry  which  anointed  dulness 
sometimes  showed,  as  the  clerical  mantle  blew 
aside,  by  chance  —  these  also  came  up  to  the  Uni- 
tarians. Besides  these,  perhaps,  men  of  no  spiritual 
faith,  who  hated  to  hear  hell  mentioned,  or  to  have 
piety  denuded,  came  also,  hoping  to  have  less  re- 
quired of  them.  Pious  men,  hungering  and  thirst- 
ing after  truth  —  men  born  religious,  found  here 
their  home,  where  Reason  and  Religion  were  both 
promised  their  rights.  This  explains  the  growth  of 
the  sect.  The  Unitarians,  seeing  the  violence,  the 
false  zeal,  of  other  sects,  the  compassing  of  sea  and 
land  to  make  a  proselyte,  went,  it  may  be  thought, 
to  the  opposite  extreme,  in  some  cases.  They 
were  called  "  cold,"  and  were  never  accused  of 
carrying  matters  too  fast  and  too  far,  and  pushing 
Religion  to  extremes.  They  were  never  good 
fighters,  except  when  occasion  compelled.  They 
stood  on  the  defensive,  and  never  crossed  their 
neighbor's  borders,  except  to  defend  their  own. 
They  thought  it  better  to  live  down  an  opponent. 


470  POSITION  OF  THE  UNITARIANS. 

than  to  talk  him  down,  or  even  hew  him  down,  — 
the  old  theological  way  of  silencing  an  opponent 
whom  it  was  difficult  to  answer. 

Still,  however,  it  seems  there  always  were  in 
their  ranks  men  who  thought  freedom  was  too  free  ; 
that  "  there  must  be  limits  to  free  inquiry,"  even 
within  the  canon ;  and  Unitarians  must  have  a 
"  creed."  Others  began  to  look  into  the  my- 
thology of  the  Old  Testament,  and  to  talk  very 
freely  about  the  imperfections  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Some  even  doubted  if  the  whale  swallowed 
Jonah.  "  Biblical  criticism  "  opened  men's  eyes, 
and  "  terrible  questions  "  were  asked  ;  great  prob- 
lems were  coming  up  which  Luther  never  an- 
ticipated, for  mankind  has  not  stood  still  for  three 
centuries  ;  it  has  studied  science  and  history,  and 
learned  some  things  never  known  before. 

At  length  the  negative  work  was  well  over,  and 
the  hostile  forces  of  other  sects  were  withdrawn,  or 
the  war  changed  into  an  armed  neutrality,  at  most 
"  a  war  of  posts."  The  Christian  name,  however, 
is  not  yet  allowed  the  Unitarians  by  their  foes,  and 
a  hearty  malediction,  a  sly  curse,  or  a  jealous  cau- 
tion, shows  even  at  this  day  the  sjoirit  that  yet  keeps 
its  "  theological  odium,"  venomous  as  before.  It 
is  no  strange  thing  for  Unitarians  to  be  pronounced 
Infidels,  and  remanded  to  Hell  by  their  fellow 
Christians  !  Now  the  time  has  come  for  Unitari- 
anism  —  representing  the  movement  party  in  theo- 
logical affairs,  — to  do  something  ;  develop  the  truth 
it  has  borne,  latent  and  unconscious  in  its  bosom. 


OLD  SCHOOL  AiSU  MEW  SCHOOL.  471 

It  is  plain  what  Reason  and  Religion  demand. 
Good  sense  must  be  applied  to  Theology  ;  Religion 
applied  to  life,  both  to  he  done  radically,  fearlessly, 
with  honest  earnestness  ;  assumptions  must  be  aban- 
doned ;  the  facts  sought  for  ;  their  relation  and  their 
law  determined,  and  thus  truth  got  at.  Did  the 
early  Reformers  see  all  things;  are  we  to  stop 
where  they  stopped,  and  because  they  stopped  ? 
All  false  assumptions  must  be  laid  aside.  The 
very  foundation  of  Protestantism  —  the  infallibility 
of  Scripture  —  is  that  a  Fact,  or  a  No-fact  ?  But 
this  is  just  the  thing  that  is  not  done  ;  which  Uni- 
tarianism  is  not  doing.  The  Trojan  horse  of  secta- 
rian organization  is  brouo;ht  into  the  citadel  with  the 
usual  effect  upon  that  citadel.  The  "Unitarian 
sect"  is  divided.  There  is  an  "Old  School," and  a 
"  New  School,"  as  it  is  called,  and  a  chasm  between 
them,  not  wide,  as  yet,  but  very  deep.  The  "  Old 
School"  holds  in  part,  to  the  first  principles  of  the 
Reformation  ;  sees  no  farther  ;  differs  theoretically 
from  the  "Orthodox"  party,  in  exegesis,  and  that 
alone  ;  like  that  is  ready  to  believe  any  thing  which 
has  a  Thus-saith-the-Lord  before  it,  at  least  if  we 
may  judge  from  the  issue  so  often  made  ;  its 
Christianity  rests  on  the  Authority  of  Jesus  ;  that 
on  the  authority  of  his  miracles ;  and  his  miracles 
on  the  testimony  of  the  Evangelists.  Therefore  it 
is  just  as  certain  there  is  a  God,  or  an  immortal 
soul,  and  religious  duties,  as  it  is  certain  that  Jesus 
raised  Lazarus  from  the  dead  !  It  has  somebody's 
word  for  it.  But  whose  ?  Its  religious  sentiment 
is  legitimated  only  by  the  sensations  of  the  apostles. 


472  THE  OLD   SCHOOL. 

This  party  says,  as  the  Unitarian  fathers  never  said  : 
There  must  be  limits  to  free  inquiry  ;  we  must  riot 
look  into  the  grounds  of  religious  belief,  lest  they 
be  found  no  grounds  ;  "  where  ignorance  is  bliss 
't  is  folly  to  be  wise  !"  The  old  landmarks  must  not 
be  passed  by,  nor  the  Bible  questioned  as  to  its  right 
to  be  master  over  the  soul.  Christianity  must  be 
rested  on  the  authority  of  Christ,  and  that  on  the 
miracles,  and  the  words  of  the  New  Testament. 
We  must  not  inquire  into  their  authority.  If  there 
is  a  contradiction  between  the  Word  of  the  New 
Testament  and  Reason,  why  the  "Word"  must 
be  believed  in  spite  of  Reason,  for  we  can  be  much 
more  certain  of  what  we  read  than  of  what  we 
think  ! 

Thus  the  old  school  assumes  a  position  abhorred 
by  primitive  Unitarianism,  which  declared  that  free 

INQUIRY  SHOULD  NEVER  STOP  BUT  WITH  A  CON- 
VICTION OF  TRUTH.  Unitarianism,  as  represented 
by  the  majority  of  its  adherents,  refuses  to  fall 
back  on  Absolute  Religion  and  Morality,  with  no 
reliance  on  Form,  Tradition,  Scripture,  personal  Au- 
thority. It  creeps  behind  texts,  usage,  and  does 
not  look  facts  in  the  face.  The  cause,  in  part,  is 
plain  as  noon  day.  It  is  connected  with  a  philoso- 
phy, poor  and  sensual,  the  same  in  its  basis  with 
that  which  gave  birth  to  the  selfish  system  of  Paley, 
the  skepticism  of  Hume,  the  materialism  of  Hobbes, 
the  denial  of  the  French  deists  ;  the  same  philoso- 
phy which  drives  other  sects  in  despair  to  their  su- 
pernatural theory.  This  cuts  men  off  from  direct 
communion  with  God,  and  curtails  all  their  efforts. 


POSITION   OF   IMTARIAiNISM.  473 

Unitariaiiism,  therefore,  is  in  danger  of  becoming  a 
truncated  supernaturalism,  its  apex  shorn  off;  ail  of 
supernaturalism  bnt  the  supernatural.  With  a  piii- 
losoplij  too  rational  to  go  the  full  length  of  the 
supernatural  theory;  loo  sensual  to  embrace  the 
spiritual  method,  and  ask  no  person  to  mediate  be- 
tween man  and  God,  it  oscillates  between  the  two; 
humanizes  the  Bible,  yet  calls  it  miraculous  ;  be- 
lieves in  man's  greatness,  freedom  and  spiritual 
nature,  yet  asks  for  a  Mediator  and  Redeemer,  and 
says  "  Christ  established  a  new  relation  between 
man  and  God  ;"  it  admits  man  can  pray  for  him- 
self, and  God  hear  for  Himself,  and  yet  prays 
"  in  the  name  of  Christ,"  and  trusts  an  "  interces- 
sor." It  censures  the  traditionary  sects,  yet  sits 
itself  among  the  tombs,  and  mourns  over  things 
past  and  gone  ;  believes  the  humanity  of  Christ, 
that  he  was  a  model-man  for  us  all,  yet  his  miracu- 
lous birth  likewise  and  miraculous  powers,  and 
makes  him  an  anomalous  and  impossible  being.  It 
blinds  men's  eyes  with  the  letter,  yet  bids  them 
look  for  the  spirit ;  stops  their  ears  with  texts  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  then  asks  them  to  listen 
to  the  voice  of  God  in  their  heart ;  it  reverences 
Christ  manfully,  yet  denounces  all  such  as  preach 
absolute  Religion  and  Morality,  as  Christ  did,  on 
its  authority,  with  nothing  between  them  and  God, 
neither  tradition  nor  person.  Well  might  a  weep- 
ing Jeremiah  say  of  it,  "  Alas  for  thee,  now  hast 
thou  forsaken  the  promise  of  thy  youth,  the  joy 
of  thine   espousals!"    or  with  the    son   of   Siiach, 

GO 


474  POSITION    OF   UJNITARIANISM 

"  How  wise  wast  thou  in  thy  youth,  and  as  a 
flood  filled  with  understanding.  Thy  soul  covered 
the  whole  earth ;  thy  name  went  far  unto  the 
islands,  and  for  thy  peace  thou  wast  beloved ;  the 
countries  marvelled  at  thee  for  thy  songs  and 
proverbs,  and  parables,  and  interpretations;  but 
by  thy  body  wast  thou  brought  into  subjection  ; 
thou  didst  stain  thine  honor,  so  that  thou  brought- 
est  wrath  upon  thy  children,  and  wast  grieved 
FOR  THY  FOLLY  !"  It  has  not  kept  its  faith.  It 
clings  to  the  skirts  of  tradition,  which,  "  as  a  scare- 
crow in  a  garden  of  cucumbers  —  keepeth  nothing." 
It  would  believe  nothing  not  reasonable,  and  yet 
all  things  scriptural  ;  so  it  will  not  look  facts  in  the 
face,  and  say  This  is  in  the  Bible,  yes  in  the  New 
Testament,  but  out  of  Reason,  none  the  less.  So, 
with  perfect  good  faith,  it  "explains  away"  what 
is  offensive.  "  This  is  not  in  the  canon.  That  is  a 
false  interpretation."  To  such  a  proficiency  has  this 
art  of  explaining  away  been  carried  that  the  Scrip- 
ture is  a  piece  of  wax  in  the  Unitarian  hand, 
and  takes  any  shape.  The  Devil  —  is  an  oriental 
figure  of  speech.  Paul  believed  in  him  no  more  than 
Peter  Bayle  ;  the  miraculous  birth  of  Jesus,  the 
ascension  in  the  body,  the  stories  of  Abraham,  Jo- 
nah, Daniel,  are  "  true  as  symbols  not  as  facts  ;" 
Moses  and  Isaiah,  never  speak  of  Jesus  in  the  Law 
and  the  Prophets,  yet  Jesus  is  right  when  he  says 
they  did  ;  David  in  the  Psalm  is  a  sick  man,  speak- 
ing only  of  himself,  but  when  Simon  Peter  quotes 
that  Psalm,  the  inspired  king  is  predicting  Jesus  of 


WHAT  MLfST   BE  DONE. 


475 


Nazareth!'  These  things  are  notorious  facts.  If 
the  Athanasian  Creed,  the  thirty-nine  articles  of 
the  English  church,  and  the  Pope's  bull  "  Unigeni- 
tus,"  could  be  found  in  a  Greek  manuscript,  and 
proved  the  work  of  an  "  inspired"  apostle,  no  doubt 
Unitarianisni  would  in  good  faith  explain  all  three, 
and  deny  they  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity  or 
the  fall  of  man.  The  Unitarian  doctrine  of  inspira- 
tion—  can  any  one  tell  what  it  is? 

But  let  the  sect  be  weighed  in  an  even  balance, 
its  theological  defects  be  set  off  against  the  vast 
service  it  has  done,  and  is  still  doing  for  morals  and 
religion.  But  this  is  not  the  place  for  its  praise. 
Of  the  "  new  school  "  of  Unitarians,  if  such  it 
may  be  called,  embracing  as  it  does  men  of  the 
greatest  possible  diversity  of  religious  sentiment  and 
opinion  —  it  is  not  decorous  to  speak  here. 

Now  Unitarianism  must  do  one  of  two  things, 
affirm  the  great  doctrines  of  absolute  Religion  — 
teaching  that  man  is  greater  than  the  Bible,  minis- 
try, or  church,  that  God  is  still  immanent  in  man- 
kind, that  man  saves  himself  by  his  own  and  not 
another's  character,  that  a  perfect  divine  life  is  the 
true  service,  and  the  only  service  God  requires,  the 
only  source  of  well-being  now  or  ever  —  it  must  do 
this,  or  cease  to  represent  the  progress  of  man  in 


'  The  work  on  the  Old  Testament,  by  one  of  its  most  distinguislied 
scholars,  finds  no  fevor  with  this  party,  though  it  is  the  only  attempt 
ever  made  in  the  English  tongue  to  look  the  facts  of  the  Old  Testament 
manfully  in  the  face  I 


476  SUMMARY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

theology,  then  some  other  will  take  its  office  ;  stand 
God-parent  to  the  fair  child  it  has  brought  into  the 
world,  but  dares  not  own. 

To  sum  up  what  has  been  said  ;  we  see  that  the 
Catholic  and  the  Protestant  party  both  start  with  a 
false  assumption,  the  divinity  of  the  church,  or  that 
of  the  Bible ;  both  claim  mastery  over  the  soul  ;  but 
both  fail  to  give  or  allow  the  Absolute  Religion. 
Both  set  bounds  to  man,  which  must  be  reached  if 
they  are  not  already.  Both  represent  great  truths, 
out  of  which  their  excellence  and  power  proceed, 
but  both  great  falsehoods,  which  impoverish  their 
excellence.  Each  is  too  narrow  for  the  soul;  should 
the  persons  who  sit  in  these  churches  rise  to  the  stat- 
ure of  men,  they  must  carry  away  roof  and  steeple, 
for  man  is  greater  than  the  church  he  allows  to 
tyrannize  over  him. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

OF  THE  PARTY  THAT  ARE  NEITHER  CATHOLICS  NOR  PROTEST- 
ANTS. 

This  partj  has  an  Idea  wider  and  deeper  than 
that  of  tlie  CathoHc  or  Protestant,  namely  ;  that 
God  still  inspires  men  as  much  as  ever ;  that  he  is 
immanent  in  spirit  as  in  space.  For  the  present 
purpose,  and  to  avoid  circumlocution,  this  doctrine 
may  be  called  Spiritualism.  This  relies  on  no 
church,  tradition,  or  Scripture,  as  the  last  ground 
and  infallible  rule  ;  it  counts  these  things  teachers, 
if  they  teach,  not  masters;  helps,  if  they  help  us, 
not  authorities.  It  relies  on  the  divine  presence  in 
the  soul  of  man  ;  the  eternal  Word  of  God,  which 
is  Truth,  as  it  speaks  through  the  faculties  he  has 
given.  It  believes  God  is  near  the  soul,  as  matter 
to  the  sense ;  thinks  the  canon  of  revelation  not 
yet  closed,  nor  God  exhausted.  It  sees  him  in 
Nature's  perfect  work  ;  hears  him  in  all  true  Scrip- 
ture, Jewish  or  Phoenician  ;  feels  him  in  the  aspira- 
tion of  the  heart ;  stoops  at  the  same  fountain  with 
Moses  and  Jesus,  and  is  filled  with  living  water. 


478  SPIRITUALISM. 

It  calls  God  Father,  not  King ;  Christ  brother,  not 
Redeemer ;  heaven  home ;  Religion  nature.  It 
loves  and  trusts,  but  does  not  fear.  It  sees  in 
Jesus,  a  man  living  manlike,  highly  gifted,  and 
living  with  blameless  and  beautiful  fidelity  to  God, 
stepping  thousands  of  years  before  the  race  of  man  ; 
the  profoundest  religious  genius  God  has  raised  up ; 
whose  words  and  works  help  us  to  form  and  de- 
velop the  native  idea  of  a  complete  religious  man. 
But  he  lived  for  himself;  died  for  himself;  worked 
out  his  own  salvation,  and  we  must  do  the  same, 
for  one  man  cannot  live  for  another  more  than  he 
can  eat  or  sleep  for  him.  It  is  no  personal  Christ 
but  the  Spirit  of  Wisdom,  Holiness,  Love,  that 
creates  the  well-being  of  man  ;  a  life  at  one  with 
God.     The  divine  incarnation  is  in  all  mankind. 

The  aim  it  proposes  is  a  complete  union  of 
man  with  God,  till  every  action,  thought,  wish, 
feeling  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  divine  will. 
It  makes  Christianity  not  the  point  man  goes 
through  in  his  progress,  as  the  Rationalist ;  not  the 
point  God  goes  through  in  his  development,  as  the 
Supernaturalist;  but  Absolute  Religion,  the  point 
where  man's  will  and  God's  will  are  one  and  the 
same.  Its  source  is  absolute,  its  aim  absolute, 
its  METHOD  absolute.  It  lays  down  no  creed ; 
asks  no  symbol ;  reverences  exclusively  no  time 
nor  place,  and  therefore  can  use  all  time  and  CA^ery 
place.  It  reckons  forms  useful  to  such  as  the}'^ 
help ;  one  man  may  commune  with  God  through 
the  bread  and  the  wine,  emblems  of  the  body  that 


SPIRITUALISM.  479 

was  broke,  and  the  blood  that  was  shed,  in  the 
cause  of  truth ;  another  may  hold  communion 
through  the  moss  and  the  violet,  the  mountain, 
the  ocean,  or  the  scripture  of  suns,  which  God  has 
writ  in  the  sky  ;  it  does  not  make  the  means  the 
end  ;  it  prizes  the  signification  more  than  the  sign. 
It  knows  nothing  of  that  puerile  distinction  between 
Reason  and  Revelation  ;  never  finds  the  alleged 
contradiction  between  good  sense  and  Religion. 
Its  Temple  is  all  space  ;  its  Shrine  the  good  heart; 
its  Creed  all  truth  ;  its  Ritual  works  of  love  and 
utility ;  its  Profession  of  faith  a  divine  life,  works 
without,  faith  within,  love  of  God  and  man.  It  bids 
man  do  duty,  and  take  what  comes  of  it,  grief 
or  gladness.  In  every  desert  it  opens  fountains  of 
living  water ;  gives  balm  for  every  wound,  a  pillow 
in  all  tempests ;  tranquillity  in  each  distress.  It 
does  good  for  goodness'  sake  ;  asks  no  pardon  for 
its  sins,  but  gladly  serves  out  the  time.  It  is  meek 
and  reverent  of  truth,  but  scorns  all  falsehood, 
though  upheld  by  the  ancient  and  honorable  of  the 
earth.  It  bows  to  no  idols,  of  wood,  or  flesh,  of 
gold  or  parchment,  or  spoken  wind  ;  neither  Mam- 
mon, neither  the  Church,  nor  the  Bible,  nor  yet 
Jesus,  but  God  only.  It  takes  all  helps  it  can  get ; 
counts  no  good  word  profane  though  a  heathen 
spoke  it ;  no  lie  sacred,  though  the  greatest  pro- 
phet had  said  the  word.  Its  redeemer  is  within  ; 
its  salvation  within  ;  its  heaven  and  its  oracle  of 
God.  It  falls  back  on  perfect  Religion  ;  asks  no 
more  ;  is  satisfied  with  no  less.    The  personal  Christ 


480  SPIRITUALISM. 

is  its  encouragement,  for  he  reveals  the  possible  of 
man.  Its  watchword  is  Be  perfect  as  God.  With 
its  eye  on  the  Infinite,  it  goes  throiigfi  the  striving 
and  the  sleep  of  life  ;  equal  to  duty,  not  above  it  ; 
fearing  not  whether  the  ephemeral  wind  blow  east 
or  west.  It  has  the  strength  of  the  Hero ;  the 
tranquil  sweetness  of  the  Saint.  It  makes  each 
man  his  own  priest ;  but  accepts  gladly  him  that 
speaks  a  holy  word.  Its  prayer  in  words,  in  works, 
in  feeling,  in  thought,  is  this.  Thy  will  be  done  ; 
its  church  that  of  all  holy  souls,  the  church  of  the 
first-born,  called  by  whatever  name.^ 

Let  others  judge  the  merits  and  defects  of  this 
scheme.  It  has  never  organized  a  church  ;  yet  in 
all  ages,  from  the  earliest,  men  have,  more  or  less 
freely,  set  forth  its  doctrines.  We  find  these  men 
among  the  despised  and  forsaken.  The  world  was 
not  ready  to  receive  them.  They  have  been  stoned 
and  spit  upon  in  all  the  streets  of  the  world.  The 
"  pious  "  have  burned  them  as  haters  of  God  and 
man  ;  the  "  wicked  "  called  them  bad  names  and 
let  them  go.  They  have  served  to  flesh  the  swords 
of  the  Catholic  church,  and  feed  the  fires  of  the 
Protestant.  But  flame  and  steel  will  not  consume 
them.  The  seed  they  have  sown  is  quick  in  many 
a  heart ;  their  memory  blessed  by  such  as  live  di- 
vine. These  were  the  men  at  whom  the  world 
opens  wide  the  mouth  and  draws  out  the   tongue 

'  It  is  unnecessary  to  enlarge  on  this  sclieme,  since  so  much  has  been 
said  of  it  alieady.  See  Book  L,  Ch.  VIL,  §  3,  and  Book  II.  Ch.  VIII.  and 
Book  III.  Ch.  V.-VI. 


SriRITL'ALlSiM.  481 

and  utters  its  impotent  laugh  ;  but  they  received  the 
fire  of  God  on  their  altar,  and  kept  living  its  sacred 
flame.  They  go  on  the  forlorn  hope  of  the  race  ; 
but  Truth  puts  a  wall  of  fire  about  them  and  holds 
the  shield  over  their  head  in  the  day  of  trouble. 
The  battle  of  Truth  seems  often  lost,  but  is  always 
won.  Her  enemies  but  erect  the  bloody  scaffold- 
ing where  the  workmen  of  God  go  up  and  down, 
and  with  divine  hands  build  wiser  than  thoy  know. 
When  the   scaffolding  falls  the  temple  will  appear. 


61 


/f» 


CHAPTER    VII. 


THE    FINAL   ANSWER    TO    THE    QUESTION. 

Now  then,  if  it  be  asked,  what  relation  the 
church  sustains  to  the  religious  Sentiment,  the 
answer  is  plain  :  The  Soul  is  greater  than  the 
Church.  Religion,  as  Reason,  is  of  God  ;  Christ- 
ianity, the  Absolute  Religion,  and  therefore  eter- 
nal, based  on  God  alone  ;  the  church.  Catholic  and 
Protestant,  is  of  man,  and  therefore  transient.  Let 
that  say  its  say  ;  man  is  God's  child,  and  free  of  its 
tyranny ;  he  must  not  accept  its  limitations,  nor 
bow  to  its  authority,  but  go  on  his  glorious  way. 
The  church  is  a  human  affair  quite  as  much  as  the 
state  ;  ecclesiastical,  like  political  institutions,  are 
changeable,  human,  subject  to  the  caprices  of  public 
opinion.  The  divine  right  of  kings  to  bear  sway 
over  the  body,  and  the  divine  right  of  the  church  to 
rule  over  the  soul,  both  rest  on  the  same  founda- 
tion —  on  a  LIE. 

The  Christian  church,  like   Fetichism  and  Poly- 
theism, like  the   state,  has  been  projected  out  of 


HISTORY  OK  THE  CHURCH.  483 

man  in  his  development  and  passage  through  the 
ages  ;  its  several  phases  correspond  to  man's  devel- 
opment and  civilization,  and  are  inseparable  from 
it.  They  arc  the  index  of  the  condition  of  man. 
They  bear  their  Justification  in  themselves.  They 
could  not  have  been  i)ut  as  th  ^y  were.  To  cen- 
sure or  approve  Catholicism,  or  Protestantism,  is  to 
censure  or  approve  the  state  of  the  race  which  gave 
rise  to  these  forms  ;  to  condemn  absolute  Religion, 
called  by  whatever  name,  is  to  condemn  both  man 
and  God. 

Jesus  fell  back  on  God,  on  absolute  Religion, 
absolute  Morality  ;  the  truth  its  own  authority,  his 
works  his  w  itness.  The  early  Christians  fell  back 
on  the  authority  of  Jesus  ;  their  successors,  on  the 
Bible,  the  work  of  the  apostles  and  prophets  ;  the 
next  generation  on  the  church,  the  work  of  apos- 
tles and  fathers.  The  world  retreads  this  ground. 
Protestantism  delivers  us  from  the  tyranny  of  the 
church,  and  carries  us  back  to  the  Bible.  Biblical 
criticism  frees  us  from  the  thraldom  of  the  Scrip- 
ture, and  brings  us  to  the  authority  of  Jesus.  Phi- 
losophical spiritualism  liberates  us  from  all  personal 
and  finite  authority,  and  restores  us  to  God,  the 
primeval  fountain,  whence  the  church,  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  Jesus,  have  drawn  all  the  water  of  life, 
wherewith  they  filled  their  urns.  Thence,  and 
thence  only,  shall  mankind  obtain  absolute  Religion 
and  spiritual  well-being.  Is  this  a  retreat  for  man- 
kind ?  No,  it  is  progress  without  end.  The  race 
of  men   never  before   stood  so  high  as  now  ;  with 


484  INSTITUTIONS  TRANSIENT. 

suffering,  tears,  and  blood  they  have  toiled,  through 
barbarism  and  war,  to  their  present  height,  and 
we  see  the  world  of  promise  opening  upon  our  eye. 
But  what  is  not  behind  is  before  us. 

Institutions  arise  as  they  are  needed,  and  fall 
when  their  work  is  done.  Of  these  things  nothing 
is  fixed.  Corporeal  despotism  is  getting  ended ; 
will  the  spiritual  tyranny  last  forever  ?  A  will  above 
our  puny  strength,  marshals  the  race  of  men,  using 
our  freedom,  virtue,  folly,  as  instruments  to  one 
vast  end  —  the  harmonious  development  of  man. 
We  see  the  art  of  God  in  the  web  of  a  spider,  and 
the  cell  of  a  bee,  but  have  not  skill  to  discern  it  in 
the  march  of  man.  We  repine  at  the  slowness  of 
the  future  in  coming,  or  the  swiftness  of  the  past 
in  fleeing  away ;  we  sigh  for  the  fabled  "  Millen- 
nium "  to  advance,  or  pray  Time  to  restore  us  the 
Age  of  Gold.  It  avails  nothing.  We  cannot  hurry 
God,  nor  retard  him.  Old  schools  and  new  schools 
seem  as  men  that  stand  on  the  shore  of  some  At- 
lantic bay,  and  shout,  to  frighten  back  the  tide,  or 
urge  it  on.  What  boots  their  cry  ?  Gently  the  sea 
swells  under  the  moon,  and,  in  the  hour  of  God's 
appointment,  the  tranquil  tide  rolls  in,  to  inlet  and 
river,  to  lave  the  rocks,  to  bear  on  its  bosom  the 
ship  of  the  merchant,  the  weeds  of  the  sea.  We 
complain,  as  our  fathers  ;  let  us  rather  rejoice,  for 
questions  less  weighty  than  these  have  in  other  ages 
been  settled  only  with  the  point  of  the  sword,  and 
the  thunder  of  cannon. 


.-s^ 


RELIGION    ETERNAL.  485 

If  the  opinions  advanced  in  this  discourse  be  cor- 
rect, then  Religion  is  above  all  institutions,  and 
can  never  fail ;  they  shall  perish,  but  Religion  en- 
dure ;  they  shall  wax  old  as  a  garment ;  they  shall 
be  changed,  and  the  places  that  knew  them  shall 
know  them  no  more  forever ;  but  Religion  is  ever 
the  same,  and  its  years  shall  have  no  end. 


THE    CONCLUSION. 


"  Changes  are  coming  fast  upon  the  world.  In  the  violent  struggle 
of  opposite  interests,  the  decaying  prejudices  that  have  bound  men  to- 
gether, in  the  old  forms  of  society,  are  snapping  asunder,  one  after 
another.  Must  we  look  forward  to  a  hopeless  succession  of  evils,  in 
which  exasperated  parties  will  be  alternately  victors  and  victims,  till  all 
sink  under  some  one  power,  whose  interest  it  is  to  preserve  a  quiet  des- 
potism ?  Who  can  hope  for  a  better  result,  unless  the  great  lesson  be 
learnt,  that  there  can  be  no  essential  improvement  in  the  condition  of 
society,  without  the  improvement  of  men  as  moral  and  religious  beings ; 
and  that  this  can  be  effected  only  by  religious  Truth  ?  To  expect  this 
improvement  from  any  form  of  false  religion,  because  it  is  called  religion, 
is  as  if,  in  administering  to  one  in  a  fever,  we  were  to  take  some  drug 
from  an  apothecary's  shelves,  satisfied  with  its  being  called  medicine." — 
Andrews  Norton.      Statement  of  Reasons,  etc.     Preface,  p.  xxii.-xxxiii. 

"  What  greater  calamity  can  fall  upon  a  nation  than  the  loss  of  Wor- 
ship .''  Then  all  things  go  to  decay.  Genius  leaves  the  temple  to  haunt 
the  senate,  or  the  market.  Literature  becomes  frivolous.  Science  is 
cold.  The  eye  of  youth  is  not  lighted  by  the  hope  of  other  worlds,  and 
age  is  without  honor.  In  the  Soul  let  the  redemption  be  sought.  In 
one  soul,  in  your  soul,  there  are  resources  for  the  world.  The  stationa- 
riness  of  religion,  the  assumption  that  the  age  of  inspiration  is  past,  that 
the  Bible  is  closed ;  the  fear  of  degrading  the  character  of  Jesus,  by 
representing  him  as  a  man,  indicate  with  sufficient  clearness  the  false- 
hood of  our  theology.  It  is  the  office  of  a  true  teacher,  to  show  us  that 
God  is,  not  was;  that  he  speaketh,  not  spake.  The  true  Christianity  — 
a  faith  like  Christ's  in  the  infinitude  of  man —  is  lost.  None  believeth 
in  the  soul  of  man,  but  only  in  some  man,  or  person  old  and  departed." 
—  Ralph  Waldo  Emekson.     Address  in  Divmitij  College,  etc.,  p.  24-25. 


"^.>, 


THE    CONCLUSION. 


I.    OF    THE    POPULAR    THEOLOGY. 

Theology  is  the  science  of  Religion.  It  treats 
of  man,  God,  and  the  relation  between  man  and 
God,  with  the  duties  which  grow  out  of  that  rela- 
tion. It  is  both  queen  and  mother  of  all  science  ; 
the  loftiest  and  most  ennobling  of  all  the  specula- 
tive pursuits  of  man.  But  the  popular  theology  of 
this  day  is  no  science  at  all,  but  a  system  of  inco- 
herent notions,  woven  together  by  scholastic  logic, 
and  resting  on  baseless  assumptions.  The  pursuit 
thereof  in  the  popular  method  does  not  elevate. 
There  is  in  it  somewhat  not  holy.  It  is  not  studied 
as  science,  with  no  concern  except  for  the  truth  of 
the  conclusion.  We  wish  to  find  the  result  as  we 
conceived  it  to  be ;  as  bishop  Butler  has  said, 
"  People  habituate  themselves  to  let  things  pass 
through  their  minds,  rather  than  to  think  of  them. 
Thus  by  use  they  become  satisfied  merely  with 
seeing  vi'hat  is  said,  without  going  any  further." 
Our  Theology  has  two  great  Idols,  the  Bible  and 

62 


490 


THE  CONCLUSION. 


Christ  ;  by  worshiping  these,  and  not  God  only, 
we  lose  much  of  the  truth  they  both  offer  us.  Our 
theology  relies  on  assumptions,  not  ultimate  facts  ; 
so  it  comes  to  no  certain  conclusions  ;  weaves  cob- 
webs, but  no  cloth. 

The  popular  Theology  rests  on  these  main  assump- 
tions ;  THE  DIVINITY  OF  THE  ChURCH,  AND  THE  DI- 
VINITY or  THE  Bible.  What  is  the  value  of  each  ? 
It  has  been  found  convenient  to  assume  both. 
Then  it  has  several  important  aphorisms,  which  it 
makes  use  of  as  if  they  were  established  truths,  to 
be  employed  as  the  maxims  of  geometry,  and  no 
more  to  be  called  in  question.  Amongst  these  are 
the  following  :  Man  under  the  light  of  nature  is 
not  capable  of  discovering  the  moral  and  religious 
truth  needed  for  his  moral  and  religious  welfare ; 
there  must  be  a  personal  and  miraculous  mediator  be- 
tween each  man  and  God  ;  a  life  of  blameless  obe- 
dience to  the  law  of  man's  nature  will  not  render 
us  acceptable  to  God,  and  ensure  our  well-being  in 
the  next  life ;  we  need  a  superhuman  being  to  bear 
our  sins,  through  whom  alone  we  are  saved  ;  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  is  that  superhuman,  and  miraculous, 
and  sin-reconciling  mediator ;  the  doctrine  he 
taught  is  revealed  Religion,  which  differs  essentially 
from  natural  Religion  ;  an  external  and  contingent 
miracle  is  the  only  proof  of  an  eternal  and  necessa- 
ry truth  in  morals  or  Religion  ;  God  now  and  then 
transcends  the  laws  of  nature  and  makes  a  miracu- 
lous revelation  of  some  truth  ;  he  does  not  now 
inspire  men  as  formerly.     Each  of  these  aphorisms 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  491 

is  a  gratuitous  assumption,  which  has  never  been 
I)roved,  and  of  course  all  the  theological  deductions 
made  from  the  aphorisms,  or  resting  on  these  two 
main  assumptions,  are  without  any  real  foundation. 
Theologians  have  assumed  their  facts,  and  then 
reasoned  as  if  the  fact  were  established,  but  the 
conclusion  was  an  inference  from  a  baseless  as- 
sumption. Thus  it  accounts  for  nothing.  "  We 
only  become  certain  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
from  the  fact  of  Christ's  resurrection,"  says  Theol- 
ogy. Here  are  two  assumptions  :  first,  the  fact  of 
that  resurrection,  second,  that  it  proves  our  immor- 
tality. If  we  ask  proof  of  the  first  point,  it  is  not 
easy  to  come  by ;  of  the  second,  it  cannot  be 
shown.  The  theological  method  is  false  ;  for  it 
does  not  prove  its  facts  historically,  or  verify  its 
conclusions  ])hilosophically.  The  Hindoo  theory 
says,  the  earth  rests  on  the  back  of  an  Elephant, 
the  Elephant  on  a  Tortoise.  But  what  does  the 
Tortoise  rest  upon  ?  The  great  Turtle  of  popular 
theology  rests  on  —  an  assumption.  Who  taught  us 
the  infallible  divinity  of  the  Bible,  or  the  church  ? 
Why,  we  always  thought  so.  We  inherited  the 
opinion,  as  land,  from  our  fathers,  "  to  have  and  to 
hold,  for  our  use  and  behoof,  for  ourselves,  our  heirs, 
forever."  Would  you  have  a  better  title  ?  We 
are  regularly  "  seized  "  of  the  doctrine  ;  it  came, 
with  the  divine  right  of  kings,  from  our  fathers, 
who  by  the  grace  of  God,  burnt  men  for  doubting 
the  truth  of  their  theology.  This  is  the  defence  of 
the  popular  theologj'.     We  have  freedom  in  civil 


492  THE  CONCLUSION. 

affairs,  can  revise  our  statutes,  change  the  adminis- 
tration, or  amend  the  constitution.  Have  we  no 
freedom  in  theological  affairs,  to  revise,  change, 
amend  a  vicious  theology  ?  We  have  always  been 
doing  it,  but  only  by  halves,  not  looking  at  the 
foundation  of  the  matter.  We  have  applied  good 
sense  to  many  things,  Agriculture,  Commerce, 
Manufactures,  and  with  distinguished  success  ;  not 
yet  to  Theology.  We  make  improvements  in 
science  and  art  every  year.  Men  survey  the 
clouds,  note  the  variations  of  the  magnetic  needle, 
analyze  rocks,  waters,  soils,  and  do  not  fear  truth 
shall  hurt  them  though  it  make  Hipparchus  and 
Cardan  unreadable.  Our  method  of  theology  is 
false  no  less  than  its  assumptions.  What  must  we 
expect  of  the  conclusion  ?     What  we  find. 

If  a  school  were  founded  to  teach  Geology,  and 
the  professors  of  that  science  were  required  to  sub- 
scribe the  geological  creed  of  Aristotle  or  Paracel- 
sus, and  swear  solemnly  to  interpret  facts  by  that 
obsolete  creed,  and  maintain  and  inculcate  the 
geological  faith  as  expressed  in  that  creed,  in  op- 
position to  Wernerians,  Bucklandians,  Lyellians, 
and  all  other  geological  heresies,  ancient  or  modern  ; 
if  the  professors  were  required  to  subscribe  this 
every  five  years,  and  no  pupil  was  allowed  the 
name  of  Geologist,  or  permitted  peacefully  to  ex- 
amine a  rock,  unless  he  professed  that  creed,  what 
would  men  say  to  the  matter  ?  No  one  thinks  such 
a  course  strange  in  theology  ;  our  fathers  did  so 
before  us.     In  plain  English,  we  are  afraid  of  the 


THb:  POPULAR  THLLOLOGY.  493 

truth.  "  God  forbid,"  said  a  man  famous  in  his  day, 
"  that  our  love  of  trutli  should  be  so  cold  as  to  tol- 
erate any  erroneous  opinion"  —  but  our  own.  Any 
change  is  looked  on  with  suspicion.  If  the  drift- 
weed  of  the  ocean  be  hauled  upon  the  land,  men 
fear  the  ocean  will  be  drank  up,  or  blown  dry  ;  if 
the  pine-tree  rock,  they  exclaim,  the  mountain  fall- 
ing Cometh  to  nought.  How  superstitiously  men 
look  on  the  miracle-question,  as  if  the  world  could 
not  stand  if  the  miracles  of  the  New  Testament 
were  not  real ! 

The  popular  Theology  does  not  aim  to  prove  ab- 
solute Religion,  but  a  system  of  doctrines.  Now 
the  problem  of  theology  is  continually  changing. 
In  the  time  of  Moses  it  was  this  :  To  separate  Re- 
ligion from  the  Fetichism  of  the  Canaanites,  and 
the  Polytheism  of  the  Egyptians,  and  connect  it  with 
the  doctrine  of  one  God.  No  doubt  Jannes  and 
Jambres  exclaimed  with  pious  horror,  What,  give 
up  the  garlic  and  the  cats  which  our  fathers  pray- 
ed to  and  swore  by  !  We  shall  never  l)e  guilty 
of  that  infidelity.  But  the  Priesthood  of  Garlic 
came  to  an  end,  and  the  world  still  continued. 
In  the  time  of  Christ,  the  problem  was  :  to  sep- 
arate Religion  from  the  obsolete  ritual  of  Moses. 
We  know  the  result ;  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees 
were  shocked  at  the  thought  of  abandoning  the 
ritual  of  Moses !  But  the  ritual  went  its  way.  In 
the  time  of  Luther  a  new  problem  arose  ;  to  sepa- 
rate Reliirion  from  the  forms  of  the  Catholic  church. 
The  issue  is  well  known.     In  our  times  the  prob- 


494  THE  CONCLUSION. 

lem  is  to  separate  Religion  from  whatever  is  finite, 
church,  book,  person,  and  let  it  rest  on  its  absolute 
truth. ^  Numerous  questions  come  up  for  discus- 
sion :  Is  Christianity  absolute  Religion  ?  What 
relation  does  Jesus  bear  to  the  human  race  ?  What 
relation  does  the  Bible  sustain  to  it  ?  We  have 
nothing  to  fear  from  truth,  or  for  truth,  but  every 
thing  to  hope.  It  is  about  Theology  that  men 
quarrel,  not  about  Religion  ;  that  is  but  one. 

II.    OF    THE    POPULAR    CHRISTIANITY. 

Coming  away  from  the  theology  of  our  time,  and 
looking  at  the  public  virtue,  as  revealed  in  our  life, 
political,  commercial  and  social,  and  seeing  things 
as  they  are,  we  must  come  to  this  conclusion  ; 
either  Christianity  —  absolute  Religion  —  is  false 
and  utterly  detestable,  or  else  modern  society,  in 
its  basis  and  details,  is  wrong,  all  wrong.  There 
is  no  third  conclusion  possible.  Christianity  de- 
mands a  divine  life  ;  society  one  mean  and  earthly. 
Christianity  says  —  its  great  practical  maxim  — We 
that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the  burthens  of  the 
weak  ;  society,  we  that  are  strong  must  make  the 
weak  bear  our  burthens,  and  does  this  daily.  The 
strong  do  not  compel  the  weak  as  heretofore,  with 
a  sword,  nor  bind  them  in  fetters  of  iron ;  they 
compel  with  an  idea,  and  chain  with  manacles 
unseen,  but  felt.  Who  does  the  world's  work  ;  he 
that  receives   most  largely  the  world's  good  ?     It 

'   See  thn  Dial  for  April,  1842,  p.  48.'),  et  seq.,  p.  501,  et  scq. 


THE  rorULAU  CMRISTIAMTY.  495 

needs  not  that  truisms  be  repeated.  Now  it  is  a 
high  word  of  Christianity,  he  tliat  is  greatest  shall 
be  your  servant.  \V'iiat  is  the  corres})onding  word 
of  society  ?  Every  body  knoAvs  it.  Do  we  estimate 
greatness  in  this  way,  by  the  man*'s  achievements 
for  the  public  Avelfare  ?  Oh  no,  we  have  no  such 
vulgar  standard !  Men  of  "  superior  talents  and 
cultivation,"  do  we  expect  them  to  be  great  by 
serving  mankind  ?  Nay,  by  serving  themselves  ! 

Religion  is  love  of  God  and  man.  Is  that  the 
basis  of  action  with  us  ?  A  young  man  setting  out 
in  life,  and  choosing  his  calling,  says  this  to  himself: 
How  can  I  get  the  most  ease  and  honors  out  of  the 
world,  returning  the  least  of  toil  and  self-denial  f 
That  is  the  philosophy  of  many  a  life  ;  the  very  end 
of  even  what  is  called  the  "  better  class"  of  society. 
Who  says.  This  will  I  do ;  I  will  be  a  man,  a 
whole  complete  man,  as  God  made  me ;  take  care 
of  myself,  but  serve  my  brother,  counting  my 
strength  his,  not  his  mine  ;  I  will  take  nothing  from 
the  world  which  is  not  honestly,  truly,  manfully 
earned  ?  Who  puts  his  feet  forward  in  such  a  life  ? 
We  call  such  a  man  a  Fool.  Yes,  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth is  a  fool,  tried  by  the  penny-wisdom  of  this 
generation.  We  honor  him  in  our  Sunday  talk  ; 
hearing  his  words,  say  solemnly  as  the  parasites  of 
Herod  :  "  It  is  the  voice  of  a  God,  not  of  a  man !" 
and  smite  a  man  on  both  cheeks,  who  does  not  cry 
Amen.  But  all  the  week  long,  we  blaspheme  that 
great  soul,  who  speaks  though  dead,  and  call  his 
word,  a  Fool's  talk.     That  is  the  popular  Chris- 


496  THE  CONCLUSIOJN. 

lianitj.  We  can  pray  as  well  as  the  old  Pharisee. 
Lord,  we  thank  thee  we  are  not  as  other  men,- as 
the  Heathen  Socrates,  who  knew  nothing,  as  the 
"  Infidel "  who  cannot  believe  contradictions  and 
absurdities.  We  say  grace  before  meat ;  attend  to 
all  the  church-ordinances  ;  can  repeat  the  creed, 
and  we  believe  every  word  of  both  thy  Testaments. 
What  wouldst  thou  more  ?  We  have  fulfilled  all 
Righteousness. 

Alas  for  us !  We  have  taken  the  name  of  Jesus 
in  our  church,  and  psalm-singing.  We  can  say  Lord, 
Lord.  No  man  ever  spake  as  thou.  Our  Christian- 
ity is  talk ;  it  is  not  in  the  heart,  nor  the  hand,  nor 
the  head,  but  only  in  the  tongue.  Could  that  great 
man,  whose  soul  bestrides  the  world  to  bless  it, 
come  back  again,  and  speak  in  bold  words,  to  our 
condition,  follies,  sins,  his  denunciation  and  his 
blest  beatitudes,  rooting  up  with  his  "  Woe-unto-you 
Hypocrites,"  what  was  not  of  God's  planting,  and 
calling  things  by  right  names  —  how  should  we 
honor  him  ?  As  Annas  and  Caiaphas,  and  their  fel- 
lows honored  that  "  Galilean  and  no  prophet,"  — 
with  spitting  and  a  cross.  But  it  costs  little  to  talk 
and  to  pray. 

A  divine  manliness  is  the  despair  of  our  churches. 
No  man  is  reckoned  good  who  does  not  believe  in 
sin,  and  human  inability.  We  seem  to  have  said, 
Alas  for  us !  We  defile  our  week-days  by  selfish 
and  unclean  living ;  we  dishonor  our  homes,  by  low 
aims  and  lack  of  love  ;  by  sensuahty  and  sin.  We 
debase  the   sterling  word  of  God  in  our  soul ;  we 


THE    POPULAR  CHRISTIANITY.  497 

cannot  discern  between  good  and  evil,  nor  read 
iialuie  ariglit ;  nor  come  at  first-hand  to  God ; 
therefore  let  us  set  one  day  apart  from  our  work  ;  let 
us  build  us  an  house  which  we  will  enter  onlj  on 
that  day  trade  does  not  tempt  us ;  let  us  take  the 
wisest  of  books,  and  make  it  our  oracle  ;  let  it  save 
us  from  thought,  and  be  to  us  as  a  God  :  let  us 
take  our  brother  to  explain  us  this  book,  to  stand 
between  us  and  God  ;  let  him  be  holy  for  us,  pray 
for  us,  represent  a  divine  life.  We  know  these 
things  cannot  be,  but  let  us  make  believe.  The 
W'ork  is  accomplished,  and  we  have  the  Sabbath, 
the  Church,  the  Bible  and  the  Ministry ;  each 
beautiful  in  itself,  but  our  ruin,  when  made  the 
substitutes  for  holiness  of  heart  and  a  divine  life. 

In  Christianity  we  have  a  Religion  wide  as  the 
East  and  the  West ;  deep  and  high  as  the  Nadir  and 
Zenith  ;  certain  as  Truth,  and  everlasting  as  God. 
But  in  our  life  we  are  heathens.  He  that  fears 
God  becomes  a  prey.  To  be  a  Christian,  with  us, 
in  speech  and  action,  a  man  must  take  his  life  in  his 
hand,  and  be  a  lamb  among  the  wolves.  Does 
Christianity  enter  the  counting  room ;  the  senate 
house  ;  the  jail  ?  Does  it  look  on  ignorance  and 
poverty,  seeking  to  root  them  out  of  the  land  ? 
The  Christian  doctrine  of  work  and  wages  is  a 
plain  thing ;  he  that  wins  the  staple  from  the  ma- 
ternal earth  ;  who  expends  strength,  skill,  taste,  on 
that  staple,  making  it  more  valuable  ;  who  aids  men 
to  be  healthier,  wiser,  better,  more  holy,  he  does  a 

63 


498  THE  CONCLUSION. 

service  to  the  race  ;  does  the  world's  work.  To 
get  commodities  won  by  other's  sweat,  by  violence 
and  the  long  arm,  is  Robbery,  the  ancient  Roman 
way  ;  to  get  them  by  cunning  and  the  long  head, 
is  Trade,  the  modern  Christian  way.  What  say 
Reason  and  Jesus  to  that?  No  doubt  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  Pulpit  is  a  poor  thing.  Words  cannot 
utter  its  poverty  ;  it  is  neither  meat  nor  drink ;  the 
text  saves  the  sermon.  But  the  Christianity  of 
daily  life,  of  the  street,  that  is  still  worse,  the  whole 
Bible  could  not  save  it.  The  history  of  society  is 
summed  up  in  a  word :  Cain  killed  Abel  ;  that 
of  real  Christianity  also  in  a  word :  Christ  died 

FOR    HIS    brother. 

From  ancient  times  we  have  received  two  price- 
less treasures :  The  Sunday,  as  a  day  of  rest,  social 
meeting,  and  religious  instruction ;  and  the  institution 
of  Preaching,  whereby  a  living  man  is  to  speak  on 
the  deepest  of  subjects.  But  what  have  we  made 
of  them  ?  Our  Sabbath,  what  a  weariness  is  it ; 
what  superstition  defiles  its  sunny  hours  ?  And 
preaching  —  what  has  it  to  do  with  life  ?  Men 
graceless  and  ungifted  make  it  handiwork  ;  a  ser- 
mon is  the  Hercules-pillar  and  ultima  Thule  of  dul- 
ness.  The  popular  religion  is  unmanly  and  sneak- 
ing. It  dares  not  look  Reason  in  the  face,  but 
creeps  behind  tradition  and  only  quotes.  It  has 
nothing  new  and  living  to  say.  To  hear  its  talk 
one  would  think  God  was  dead,  or  at  best  asleep. 
We   have  enough  of  church-going,  a  remnant  of 


S^ 


THE  FOPULAK  CHRISTIANITY.  499 

our  father's  veneration,  which  might  lead  to  great 
good  ;  reverence  still  for  the  Sabbath,  the  best  in- 
stitution the  stream  of  time  has  brought  us  ;  we 
have  still  admiration  for  the  name  of  Jesus.  A  soul 
so  great  and  pure  could  not  have  lived  in  vain.  But 
to  call  ourselves  Christians,  —  may  God  forgive  that 
mockery !  Are  men  to  serve  God  by  lengthening 
the  creed  and  shortening  the  commandments  ;  mak- 
ing long  prayers  and  devouring  the  weak  ;  by  turn- 
ing Reason  out  of  doors  and  condemning  such  as 
will  not  believe  our  Theology,  —  nor  accept  a 
priest's  falsehood  in  God's  name  ? 

Religion  is  Life.  Is  our  Life  Religion  ?  No  man 
pretends  it.  No  doubt  there  are  good  men  in  all 
churches,  and  out  of  all  churches ;  there  have  been 
such  in  the  hold  of  pirate-ships  and  robbers'  dens. 
I  know  there  are  good  men  and  pious  women,  and 
I  would  go  leagues  long  to  sit  down  at  their  blessed 
feet  and  kiss  their  garments'  hem ;  but  what  are 
the  mass  of  us  ?  Disciples  of  absolute  Religion  ? 
Not  Christians  after  the  fashion  of  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth ;  only  Christians  in  tongue.  It  is  an  imputed 
righteousness  that  we  honor  ;  not  ours  but  borrowed 
of  Tradition ;  an  "  historical  Christianity,"  that 
was,  but  is  no  more.  A  man  is  a  Christian  if  he 
goes  to  church  ;  pays  his  pew-tax  ;  bows  to  the 
parson  ;  believes  with  his  sect  \  is  good  as  other 
people.  That  is  our  religion  ;  what  is  lived,  what 
is  preached  ;  "  like  people,  like  priest,"  was  never 
more  true. 


500  THE  CONCLUSION. 

It  is  not  that  we  need  new  forms  and  symbols, 
or  even  the  rejection  of  the  old.  Baptism  and  the 
Supper  are  still  beautiful  and  comforting  to  many 
a  soul.  A  spiritual  man  can  put  spirit  upon  these. 
To  many  they  are  still  powerful  auxiliaries.  They 
commune  with  God  —  through  bread  and  wine,  as 
others  hold  converse  with  Him,  through  the  symbols 
of  nature,  the  winds  that  wake  the  "  soft  and  soul- 
like sound  "  of  the  pine  tree ;  through  the  earliest 
violets  of  spring  and  the  last  leaf  of  autumn  ; 
through  calm  and  storm,  and  stars  and  blooming 
trees  and  winter's  snows,  and  summer's  sunshine. 
A  religious  soul  never  lacks  symbols  of  its  ow^n,  ele- 
ments of  communion  with  God.  What  w^e  want 
is  the  Soul  of  Religion,  its  Sign  will  take  care  of 
itself ;  Religion  that  thinks  and  works. 

With  us  Religion  is  a  nun  ;  she  sits,  of  week- 
days, behind  her  black  veil,  in  the  church  ;  her 
hands  on  her  knees  ;  making  her  creed  more  un- 
readable ;  damning  "  infidels  "  and  "  carnal  Rea- 
son ;  "  she  only  comes  out  in  the  streets  of  a  Sun- 
day, when  the  shops  are  shut,  and  temptation  out 
of  sight  and  the  din  of  business  is  still  as  a  baby's 
sleep.  All  the  week,  nobody  thinks  of  that  joyless 
vestal.  Meantime  strong-handed  Cupidity,  with 
his  legion  of  devils,  goes  up  and  down  the  earth, 
and  presses  Weakness,  Ignorance  and  Want  into 
his  service  ;  sends  Bibles  to  Africa  on  the  deck  of 
his  ship,  and  Rum  and  Gunpowder  in  the  hold, 
knowing  that  the  church  will   pray  for  "  the  out- 


THK   POPULAR  CHRISTIANITY.  501 

\Naid  bound."  He  brings  home,  most  Christian 
Cupidity,  images  of  himself  God  lias  eaived  in 
ebony  ;  to  Christianize  and  bless  the  sable  son  of 
Ethiopia  !  Verily  we  are  a  Christian  people;  zealous 
of  good  works;  drawing  nigh  unto  God  —  with  our 
lips.  Lives  there  a  savage  tribe  our  shi])s  have 
visited,  that  has  not  cause  to  curse  and  hate  the 
name  of  Christians,  who  have  plundered,  polluted, 
slain,  enslaved  their  children  ?  Not  one  the  wide 
world  round,  from  the  Mandans  to  the  Malays.  If 
there  were  but  half  the  Religion  in  all  Christen- 
dom, that  there  is  talk  of  it  during  a  "  Revival," 
in  a  village  ;  at  the  baseness,  political,  commercial, 
social  baseness  daily  done  in  the  world,  such  a  shout 
of  indignation  would  go  up  from  the  four  corners  of 
earth,  as  should  make  the  ears  of  Cupidity  tingle 
again  and  hustle  the  oppressor  out  of  creation. 
The  Poor,  the  Ignorant,  the  Weak,  have  we  al- 
ways with  us,  inasmuch  as  we  do  good  unto  them, 
we  serve  God  ;  inasmuch  as  we  do  it  not  unto 
the  least  of  them,  we  blaspheme  God  and  cumber 
the  ground  we  tread  on.  Was  there  no  meaning 
in  that  old  word  "  He  that  knew  his  Lord's  will 
and  did  it  not,  shall  be  beaten  with  many  stripes  ?" 
They  are  already  laid  upon  us.  Religion  meant 
something  with  Paul  ;  something  with  Jesus  ;  what 
does  it  mean  with  us  ?  A  divine  life  from  infancy 
to  age  ;  divine  all  through  ?  Oh,  no  ;  a  cheaper 
thing  than  that ;  it  means  talk,  creed-making,  and 
creed-believing,  and  creed-defending.     We  Chris- 


502  THE  CONCLUSION. 

tians  of  the  "  nineteenth  century,"  have  manj  "  in- 
ventions to  save  labor  ; "  a  process  by  which  "  a 
man  is  made  as  good  a  Christian  in  five  minutes  as 
in  fifty  years."  Behold  Christianity  made  easy  ! 
Do  men  love  Religion  and  its  divine  life,  as  Gain 
and  Trade  ?  Is  it  the  great  moving  principle  with 
us;  something  loved  for  itself;  something  to  live 
by  ?     Oh,  no.     Nobody  pretends  it. 

No  wonder  "  ministers  cannot  bear  to  hear  the 
truth  spoken ;"  five  minutes'  talk  will  not  weigh 
down  fifty  years  work,  save  in  the  church's  balance, 
The  Christianity  of  the  church  stands  at  the  cor- 
ner of  the  street,  and  bellows  till  all  rings  again 
from  Cape  Sable  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  if  a 
single  "  heretic  "  lifts  up  his  voice,  though  never  so 
weak,  in  the  obscurest  corner  of  the  earth  ;  but 
Giant  Sin  may  go  through  the  land  with  his  hide- 
ous rout ;  may  ride  over  the  poor  rough-shod,  and 
burn  the  standing  corn  and  poison  the  waters  of 
the  nation,  and  shake  the  very  church  till  the  stee- 
ple rock  —  and  there  shall  not  a  dog  wag  his 
tongue.  When  did  the  Christianity  of  the  church 
leave  a  heresy  unscathed  ;  when  did  it  ever  de- 
nounce a  popular  sin  ;  the  desolation  of  intemper- 
ance ;  the  butchery  of  Indians  ;  the  soul-destroying 
traffic  in  the  flesh  and  blood  of  men  "  for  whom 
Christ  died  ?  "  These  things  need  no  comment. 
They  tell  their  own  tale.  Where  is  the  Infidelity 
of  this  age  ?  Read  the  religious  newspapers.  We 
have  a  theological  Religion  to  defend  with  tracts, 


If 

•4 


THE  POPULAR  CHRISTIANITY.  503 

sermons,  and   scandal.     It  needs  all  that  to  defend 
it. 

No  wonder  young  men,  and  young  women  too, 
of  the  most  spiritual  stamj),  lose  their  reverence  for 
the  church,  or  come  into  it  only  for  a  slumber,  irre- 
sistible, profound,  and  strangely  similar  to  death. 
What  concord  hath  freedom  with  slavery  ?  Talent 
goes  to  the  world,  not  the  church.  No  wonder 
Unbelief  scoffs  in  the  public  print,  "  beside  what 
that  grim  w'olf,  with  privy  paw,  daily  devours  apace, 
and  nothing  said ;"  there  is  an  unbelief,  worse  than 
the  public  scoffing,  though  more  secret,  which 
needs  not  be  spoken  of.  No  wonder  the  old  cry  is 
raised,  the  church  in  danger,  as  its  crazy- 
timbers  sway  to  and  fro  if  a  strong  man  treads  its 
floors.  But  what  then  ?  What  is  true  never  fails. 
Religion  is  permanent  in  the  race  ;  Christianity 
everlasting  as  God.  These  can  never  perish, 
through  the  treachery  of  their  defenders,  or  the 
violence  of  their  foes.  We  look  round  us,  and  all 
seems  to  change ;  what  was  solid  last  night,  is  fluid 
and  passed  off  to-day  ;  the  theology  of  our  fathers 
is  unreadable ;  the  doctrines  of  the  middle-age 
"  divines"  is  deceased  like  them.  Shall  our  moun- 
tain stand  ?  "  Everywhere  is  instability  and  inse- 
curity." It  is  only  men's  heads  that  swim;  not  the 
stars  that  run  round.  The  Soul  of  man  remains 
the  same  ;  absolute  Religion  does  not  change  ; 
God  still  speaks  in  Reason,  Conscience,  Faith  ;  is 
still  immanent  in  his  children.     We  need  no  new 


504  THE   CONCLUSION. 

forms  ;  the  old,  Baptism  and  the  Supper,  are  still 
beautiful  to  many  a  soul,  and  speak  blessed  words 
of  religious  significance.  Let  them  continue  for 
such  as  need  them.  We  want  real  Christianity, 
the  absolute  Religion,  preached  with  faith  and 
applied  to  life  ;  Being  Good  and  Doing  Good. 
There  is  but  one  real  Religion  ;  we  need  only  open 
our  eyes  to  see  that  ;  only  live  it,  in  love  to  God, 
and  love  to  man,  and  we  are  blest  of  Him  that 
liveth  forever  and  ever. 


THE  end. 


4 


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DATE  DUE 


iC^ 


